1st Generation Eye Candy

[Guest gcrookston]

Digging through the archives today I found these from "guns I once owned" these were sold on GB in 2005-6...

This was one of my gun collecting phases. It started with Luger's and migrated through most of the C&R fair of the first half of the 20th century... These are examples of my wanderings into the 19th century

1881 .41 Colt, Lettered to St Louis (the .41 at one time was more popular than the .45lc)

1892 .32 WCF, lettered to Laramie hardware store with original Ivory Grips.

1894 38 WCF lettered to Browning Brothers, Ogden Utah

Ya know, these were great guns to own, but they were not that great a bunch of shooters... In retrospect, the sights left a great deal to be desired. I collected the off the road calibres because they were cheaper than the .45LC examples and in most cases more interesting, at least to me...

Edited March 7, 2009 by gcrookston

[Guest tnmale46]

nice

[Guest OttoMaddox]

Sweet set o sixguns!

[Guest cjr]

Man if those wheels could talk.

Very nice

[Guest gcrookston]

This one was my personal favorite. 1895, lettered to Pocatello Idaho. It was shipped from the factory with ivory grips and nickel finish. At some point it was re-nickeled, except for the grip strap - which appeared to be original, and the ivory grips were traded for wood. I made a new set of ivories for it. .45 LC

And this one can be seen residing down at herogear these days:

Edited March 8, 2009 by gcrookston

[DavidD]

Very nice, I'm sure you wish you still had them sometimes. Let me ask ask a question that will surely show my ignorance on this subject. What do you mean by "Lettered to"?

[towerclimber37]

I may be off the mark, but being "lettered to" means that these firearms were made before legislation passed that required firearms to have serial numbers...and because of their collectible status...i.e modifying them by adding a serial number would decrease their value...they get a letter that describes the firearm in detail, in leiu of a letter...

is that pretty much right Glenn?

[Guest gcrookston]

"Lettered to" refers to the letter available from Colt Archive. The fee for the letter from the factory runs from $75 to $300 depending upon the gun. It will most often add that much value to a gun and sometimes quite a bit more, depending upon the historical significance.

The letter will include the date shipped from the factory, the configuration when shipped and who/where it was shipped.

For example, a gun that shipped to a Laramie Wyoming Dry Goods store during the hay day of Cowboying will be more desirable to a Wild West Collector or Cowboy Action Shooter than one that shipped to Indiana during the same period. One that shipped to a historical individual or company will have more value than one that shipped to an obscure one.

The letter can often prove or disprove "the story" of the gun (remember you buy the gun, not the story, but if the Colt Letter says that open-top was shipped to Bat Masterson in Dodge City you may have just earned a new car).

The letter also helps to determine if the gun has been messed with as far as different barrel length (or even calibre), grips and finish.

http://www.coltsmfg.com/cmci/historical.asp

Smith and Wesson also offers this service for a more reasonable cost. Herogear has a 1927 vintage model pre-model 10 for sale right now that letters to a Police equipment supply company that was just around the corner from the old NYCPD headquarters. It is also the oldest continiously running gunstore in North America, the current proprietors of which also own Henry Arms. So the letter takes it from being just an old surplus police gun and gives it a department and a place and time in history that otherwise would not be known and increases the value to those that collect law enforcement items.

Edited March 12, 2009 by gcrookston

[towerclimber37]

nice!

see? I WAS off the mark! but I like learning so this is a good thing when it's non-critical.