SCARCE 1877 JOHN T. CLEVELAND INSPECTED COLT CAVALRY SINGLE ACTION ARMY REVOLVER.

inv# 01-19092

Cal. 45. S# 35044.

Bbl. 7.5″ standard configuration of classic Indian Wars cavalry revolver w/ scarce unique to this series 1 line Hartford address w/out the terminating hyphens seen on rest of series. This is among the scarcest Indian War cavalry revolvers, only 1003 in 9th US contract March 15, 1875 were delivered & inspected 1877, 1000 also in 1876. Kopec only notes 10 examples of this unhyphenated bbl. address & explains possible reasoning on pages 45-49 of his 1994 text. John T. Cleveland’s “JTC” stamped on bottom of frame, bbl., cyl. & bottom of right grip. “JTC” cartouche is found on right grip & “DAL” (Ordnance inspector David A. Lyle) cartouche found on left grip below “1877”. Frame has 3 line patent dates w/ “US” roughly removed, which was common practice for soldiers, deserters or Indians not wishing to be found having liberated government property. 1877 Being at the height of Indian Wars & fine honest survivors such as this are quite scarce.