Summary

Colt 1849 Pocket model percussion revolver, cal. .31 in., rifled octagonal barrel 100 mm (4 in.) long with loading lever attached.

Made by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co, Hartford, Connecticut. Serial number 223544, 1864.

Physical Description

Six chambered cylinder engraved with crisp stagecoach hold-up scene, large rounded brass trigger guard with good remnants of silver plating, steel frame, brass back strap with good remnants of silver plating, wooden grips, pin style front sight. Knurling on hammer is course style. Barrel address is one-line New York address. Light remnants of blueing on barrel and case hardening colours on frame.

Significance

The 1849 Pocket Model, also termed the New Pocket Model, was the singular most popular Colt handgun of the nineteenth century with its production (including the Baby Dragoon models) running from 1848 to 1872.

Perceived as an improved continuation of the 1848 Baby Dragoon, it differed through the addition of a loading lever, rectangular cyclinder stops with guides and adopted the stagecoach hold-up scene, in place of the military themed soldiers and indian scene of the Baby Dragoon.

This particular example, with its silver plated brass fittings but British proof marks on the cylinder, demonstrates what was presumably an American made Pocket model destined for the English market. Interestingly, it lacks the matching British proof marks on the barrel. A significant development of the one-line New York address models is the increase in capacity from a five to a six chambered cylinder.

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