Uberti Confederate Dance Replicas

[drjldavis]

I am trying to finalize an article dealing with the Uberti Dance Commemorative revolver.  Has anyone seen or know of anyone who has one of these. 

There were only forty four completed sets delivered by Uberti.  The sets, put together by Uberti, were cased in a Walnut Display Case with Leather Covered Flask, Brass Cap Box, Nipple Wrench, and Bullet Mold.  Revolvers came in a Western Arms Uberti Box along with a Certificate of Authenticity.  Originally there was fifty sets but six came from Uberti with unfinished barrels.  The barrels only of these six revolvers were returned to Uberti for finishing.  They were never returned. 

Southwest Muzzle Loaders Supply, the producer of the Dance Replica, was sold and the remaining six frames were part of the inventory along with a few unsold cased sets.  The new owners went bankrupt and all remaining inventory was disposed of by the bank.  The remaining cased sets were cannibalized of accessories and sold piecemeal.  Six finished frames and cylinders were included in this inventory.  I recently was able to purchase one of these frames that had been fitted with a Pietta octagon barrel (original barrel has Dragoon type barrel part round and part octagon), and was cased in a display case of the type sold by Cabela's, a Colt type flask, bullet mold, and caps.  It was listed as an original Uberti Commemorative Cased Set for $895.  After contacting the seller and finding out what and where he had obtained the set he removed it from the market.

Two more of these frames were purchased by the original owner of SMLS at a gun show a year or so later.  Three of the original cased sets were purchased from the liquidator of the bank inventory.  However, these sets had been cannibalized of the leather covered flask and replaced with a Colt type flask.  There were no boxes or Certificates of Authenticity provided.

I am interested in finding the remaining three finished frames.  The frames will be case hardened, with the cylinder finished in the highly polished Colt bright blue with gold inlayed Stars.  Serial numbers will be AR 0XX.  Numbers may not be consecutive.

There have been two "Scrap" Guns sold by Uberti a few years back at the time of the Beretta takeover after the death of A. Uberti.  These were made from left over parts from the Dance Commemorative issue.  They may have the markings of the Commemorative but not finished in the bright blue or with gold inlays.  Serial numbers seem to vary depending on what distributor sold these guns.  They are a curiosity but of little collector value.  Armi San Marco consistently used left over special issue revolver parts in their production guns.  There were two Dragoon made up of left over parts from a Dallas Arms Collector Association special edition sold on Auction Arms.  I acquired one of these as a curiosity for less than $200.  Another interesting "Scrap" gun was a San Marco 2nd Model Dragoon with a Tucker & Sherrard cylinder which was made and marked by Uberti.  Uberti was the on manufacturer to produce the replica Tucker & Sherrard.  It is now becoming common knowledge that all these Italian revolver manufacturers readily supplied parts to each other.  Who knows, maybe someone may become interested in collecting these parts guns.  They seem to be fairly common and cheap.

Any help in finding these "needles in a hay stack" would be greatly appreciated.