Hello all,

Thank you for your warm welcome - I travelled the US East Coast on a couple of occasions in my youth (some of my best memories) and am looking forward to bring my young family out there again in the future.

My enquiry is a bit of a long shot in terms of looking into trying to obtain some provenance behind a Revolver that's been in my family for many years. It was handed down to me by my Father before he moved to warmer climes in ill health a few years ago.

The story behind the gun is as interesting as the hardware itself. The gun was at one point accompanied by a certificate to prove its provenance, but I never saw it. It was apparently presented to my great great Uncle. My Father said:

"The hand gun is reputed to have been a presentation piece given to my great uncle who had helped Professor Bell string the telephone across the west of America. He was an electrician which was like a nuclear scientist in those days."

It looks a lot like this:

Engraved Smith & Wesson No. 2 Army Revolver with Ivory Grips

I'm happy to upload a picture of it - not sure of the rules about that, and I also realise that Smith and Wesson will send you a history report if you provide them with a serial number but I'm not sure this will help me look into why it was purchased. Like I said, quite a long shot but it's always worth a try.

Many thanks,
Otter

Photos of the revolver would be of interest to many of us.

Bill

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It's been handled quite a lot over the years by various family and friends, and would probably benefit from a clean.

First, welcome to the Forum.

Second, as far as the history of your revolver goes, just about anything's possible as to who it shipped to and for what reason. There may be some old archives in some county or state records about your great-great-uncle. You just never know.

If I were really serious about documenting your revolver, and that revolver were mine, I'd spend the fifty bucks for a letter on it...it'll be thoroughly researched in the S&W records by Roy Jinks. And hey, it's only fifty bucks. A week or so after you send the check off, you won't even miss the money.

Thanks for showing us the photo...I'm sure everyone would like to see more and in greater detail. You can upload five photos as attachments per post, and even more photos if you use an image hosting site like Photobucket or something. That's site's free up to a certain number of photos.

If you want to post its serial number, there'll be a bunch of people right now who can give you more details about the gun.

Undoubtedly so. It would also probably benefit from not letting a bunch of folks play with it and handle it. If you own the gun now, I'd think about maybe restricting access to it. But that's just me.

Good luck.

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Yes of course, it's a no brainer. The documentation has to be sent for, it'll add to the piece either way (once I work out how to convert GDP into Dollars in cheque form).

Although we love it, I guess I've just become complacent about it's presence over the years and this is the first time I've had a chance to look into it. General access has definitely been restricted since it came to me, I eventually want to hand it down as well. So any information or tips are always welcome!

Sorry, not quite got to grips with the photo attachments in here yet..

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Otter3, Almost all of the Model 2 Armies went to S&W distributors like, J.W.Storrs in New York City, B. Kittredge in Ohio., Tryon in Philadelphia, etc. , so a factory letter will only show when & where it was shipped and that it left the factory as a plain gun with Rosewood stocks. There were no factory engravers when your gun was made, all engraving was done outside the factory. The engraving on your gun is very minimal quality and, in my opinion, it was not done in New York where many examples of this model were engraved by S&W distributors to customer's orders. The ivory stocks are not original to your gun as they are a too poor fit to be a S&W distributor's fitted stocks, and were probably added when the engraving was done to embellish the gun. Part of the gun's current value is the patina, so be very careful when you clean the gun not to remove any patina. Good Luck, Ed.