Sold for $3,600
.44 caliber. 7.5" octagon to round barrel. SN: 18113 (mfg. ca.1859). Blued and color casehardened finish, brass backstrap and triggerguard, varnished one-piece walnut grip. Single action percussion revolver with six-chambered smooth round cylinder. Top flat of barrel roll marked - ADDRESS SAML COLT NEW-YORK CITY -. Lower left of frame marked in two lines COLT'S/PATENT. Matching serial numbers throughout including the wedge and the grip numbered in ink in the backstrap cut out. Cylinder markings are not legible. Rear sight is a notch in the hammer nose and the front sight is a German silver blade. The Colt Dragoon was the improved version of the famous Colt Walker .44 handgun and between 1848 and 1860 some 18,000 of the guns were produced in three models.
The Third Model Dragoon was manufactured in the largest numbers with about 9,000 produced between 1851 and 1860. Much of that production went to fill government contracts, while many of the late production civilian guns found themselves heading south in the months leading up the American Civil War. A solid example of the popular and impressively sized four pound Colt percussion revolver.
Good. Bore about good with moderate oxidation and pitting, but retaining visible rifling. Metal with minute traces of finish around the barrel web and a mostly lightly oxidized brownish-gray patina. Leaving lever with some traces of dulled mottled colors at the web, frame with a similar patina to the barrel. Cylinder cleaned with no markings other than the serial number present and some surface scuffs and scratches. Not mechanically functional, the revolver appears to need a hand spring to operate correctly. All of the safety pins are heavily worn and essentially missing. Grip with moderate wear and some traces of varnish, showing a large old chip near the leading edge of the obverse side and with numerous bumps, dings and mars.