COMING IN MAY 2021
MAGNIFICENT COLT MODEL 1855 FACTORY ENGRAVED DELUXE SPORTING RIFLE ATTRIBUTED TO MASTER ENGRAVER GUSTAVE YOUNG FEATURED IN R.L. WILSON’S COLT ENGRAVING VOL. 1, P. 152; ALSO IN COLT ENGRAVING P. 96.
inv# 01-18829
Cal. 36. S# 29.
This exceptional arm is featured in several texts including Colt Engraving by R.L. Wilson, 1974, pps 96-97. Wilson states: Earliest known production series Sidehammer longarm engraved, serial number 29, of the First Model Sporting Rifle. Profusely embellished by Gustave Young. 21” barrel, blue and case hardening finish. Note COLTS/PATENT inscription on left side of frame. Top of barrel inscribed in Old English; note rare, checkered rammer lever; checkered buttstock of select walnut. Apparently this arm was intended as a display piece. It eventually found its way to India, and came out of the private armory of the Nizam of Hyderabad”
This rifle has features only seen on this or one or two other other early examples; engraved Colts Patent mark on frame (most examples do not have a frame marking), old English script barrel address. Serial number 39 in same configuration is presented by Colt to Czar Alexander II in 1858, now on display at the Hermitage, Leningrad but not engraved. SN 29 is the earliest factory engraved sporting rifle. Only 125 21” sporting rifles of earliest configuration made with unique attached cleaning rod to left side of barrel and frame. These early models were all made without forestock.
February 22, 1937 Time magazine featured the Nizam (Osman Ali Khan) on its cover as the world’s richest person (estimates in 2020 dollars, his worth was over 200 billion dollars). His family only the best of everything for past few hundred years.
