Hartford London Colt Navy

[mrclark303]

Evening all.

I thought you guys would appreciate a pic of an 1855 made Hartford London Navy I picked up a while ago.

It's in virtually unfired condition with full matching numbers, mechanically perfect, an excellent bore and most of its original finish including seldom surviving colour case hardening to the frame.

Information

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[#1oilman]

Very Nice!

[Lee Enfield]

Spectacular

[browningautorifle]

Very nice revolver. That would have been gorgeous when hew, the blue would have been something you could reach right into.

[mrclark303]

Cheers guys, your right there Jim, the depth of finish on the barrel is just beautiful.

Colts civilian finish was a thing of beauty, with a lot of effort spent on flawless mirror finishing the parts prior to blue.

The finish is markedly different to my early London made Navy, that's a dull darker finish, perhaps done with military contracts in mind.

Considering the very small number of Hartford made, London addressed Navies made, there can't be many left in this condition.

[Woodsy]

Very nice! I have been waiting for the photos to show up from your purchase. I just bought back a '51 that I sold many years ago. It is made in '53 (NY address) and is a relic of the gold rush in my area in 1862, being found under the porch of an old miners hut. Serial number 12864 all matching, a bit rough but good local history.

[mrclark303]

Cheers Rod, I am very lucky to have acquired my example, but yours, with its local history is rather interesting, do you know who owned it?

[Woodsy]

Cheers Rod, I am very lucky to have acquired my example, but yours, with its local history is rather interesting, do you know who owned it?

Sadly, no idea who may have owned it. It was found under the wooden porch of a local, long-abandoned stone miners hut. There were thousands of miners here during the rush, most living in tents, and it was only the more successful who stayed and built stone huts. Its reasonable state of preservation is due to our very dry climate in this part of NZ. Many of the miners came from California, which was probably the source of my .44 Remington 'old army' model 1861 that was also found locally.

[mrclark303]

I'm trying to confirm rightly or wrongly, that the Hartford London Navies were made on London factory plant shipped back to the US and continued serial numbers from the end of London production?

I can see a continuation of London manufacture serial numbers might make sense (from a UK importing and sales perspective), but surely they would just use existing Hartford plant to build them?

My example seems to have completely standard Hartford manufacturing components..

I've always thought that unused London parts were just randomly employed in general 1851 Navy manufacture until all used up.