Given all of the discussion going on about engraving, I figured this one was worth pulling out of the safe.

Most of my engraved Model 1's have a very Nimschke style of engraving, but this one is different. I won't say anything about it other than that ... curious to hear what others think of it.

And yes, I have a factory letter for it ... but I won't give away its secrets yet. :-)

Mike

... and one more of the cylinder.

Mike

I thought that scroll work typified the Nimschke style, but I know vet little about this stuff.

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low speed, high drag

Very unusual style of engraving for the period. It has the interlocking scrolls but w/o the punch dot background associated with Nimschke, etc. The Shield and Eagle embellishments were popular in the period of the gun's manufacture and are seen on many different works of various engravers. It's probably a dealer decorated gun. Ed.

Ed, you’ll be surprised to learn that it lettered as a factory “fancy” gun. And it wasn’t shipped through Storrs, either.

Mike

Kornbrath?

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Mike Maher #283

All I can say is it looks like more like a goose over the shield on the cylinder than an eagle??? The term "folk-art" comes to mind when looking at that engraving, but it is overall still a very appealing gun. I assume that the brass is gold-plate?

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Mike, it's far too early to be Kornbrath's work. And yes, Gary, the frame was gold plated.

Ed is right that the engraving lacks the punch dot texturing that was typical of the New York engraving style of the time, but it's well executed nonetheless. And, it letters as a "fancy" gun from the factory, which suggests that it was a factory commission and not a dealer engraved gun.

It's also interesting that the gun is shown on the books as having gone not to Storrs, but rather to the Mayor of Springfield. Since the vast, vast majority of Model 1's were shipped directly to Storrs, it does suggest that someone at S&W was involved in getting the mayor his gun. I've long speculated whether the gun was presented to the mayor by someone at S&W, or whether he ordered it and someone at S&W helped speed the process up. Sadly, the S&W records tell us very little.

I do know that Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson were involved in local politics, so there's even a possibility that one of them was involved in this gun's manufacture.

It's a great piece that, at the moment, has more questions than answers.

Mike

My first thought was Damascene. It fits in the Gustave Young time frame but I don't think it looks like GY.

Murph, I haven't found any evidence that the mayor of Springfield (to whom this gun was given / owned) was ever connected with military service. His father had been a colonel (in the war of 1812, I believe) and served in the state legislature, but that's neither here no there with his son. The mayor had been a very successful businessman with a variety of business and real estate interests in Springfield (translation: he was wealthy).

If this gun was presented to him, then I suspect that it was connected either to his business interests, or to his ascent into politics (both as mayor and in the state legislature). Of course, we don't know that it was a presentation gun ... he may have just wanted a fancy gun and reached out to the factory personally.

I haven't been able to find anything newsworthy about him in 1866 (when this gun shipped from the factory), so it remains something of a mystery.

Mike

Unless there is additional information we are unaware of, nothing posted so far shows the mayor was given the revolver or was the owner of the revolver. You simply said it was sent to him. The mayor may have asked for a "fancy" revolver (either gratis or to be paid for) so he could give it to someone else or this someone else asked the mayor to do him a favor and get a fancy S&W quickly and/or below retail price.

John, it's funny that you mention that.

Something I've found in my research is that it's sometimes beneficial to walk away from something for a bit, and then to come back with a fresh mind and look at all of the evidence again. It's often the case that the clues are there, hidden in plain sight. I spent part of this afternoon doing just that.

It turns out that the mayor's political career (at least, that which I know of) started a few years after this gun was shipped in 1866. But at that time, he was a very successful business owner that has invested heavily in Springfield real estate and the lumber business. He also manufactured sawing machines, so even if he lost sawing business to his competition, there's a good chance that they were using his machinery.

I also have a newspaper article from a few months prior to the shipment of this gun indicating that he had sawn over 150,000 chords of wood for the Western Railroad. This was a large enough shipment to make the news, and I'm sure it made him a tidy profit.

So, I'm now wondering if, as you suggested, he ordered this gun not for himself, but rather as a gift for someone—perhaps someone senior at the railroad? Or something like that. I hadn't really focused on this before, but given the few shards of information that I have, it's the approximation that feels right in my gut.

By the way, the gun cost $23 from the factory.

Mike

The gun was shipped in 1866, well into reconstruction.

I've seen the eagle and shield motif on other things (including currency). and it was pretty common iconography before, during and after the war. I'm skeptical about trying to read much into it ... my guess is that someone just liked the patriotic theme and went with it.

(A fun anecdote: it was a US postage stamp from 1869 with the shield, eagle and flag motif that captured my 12 year old imagination and got me interested in American history. I found it much more interesting than the staid royal themes of Canadian currency and stamps.)

Mike

Emerson Wight.

Mike

Bummer, I was positive that it had to be Kornbrath or maybe his GGGrandfather??? Are you sure? Oh, well, I've said that I'm not good at identifying engravers. My guess was in gest as there was an engraved 1,1,1 (type something) that Tom Lindner owned that was profusely engraved in the period style by a modern engraver. It was a beauty, but not authentic. I like yours better.

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Mike Maher #283

"... your handgun ... was probably shipped from our factory on July 20, 1866 and sold to Wight E no address listed and simply listed as 1 fancy Model 1 at $23.00. At the time this revolver was engraved Smith & Wesson was using several different contractor including Gustave Young."

Mike

Very interesting...

Emerson was probably the wealthiest person in Springfield, Massachusetts when he died in 1890. He owned some of the finest business properties in the city, made a ton of money in the lumber business (as mentioned previously), and was mayor for four consecutive terms. All the preceding is even more impressive since he lost both his legs in a railroad accident in 1853.

The Boston Globe printed a summary of the provisions of his "Last Will and Testament" on 11 January, 1890, and there was quite of bit of cash distributed. (No reference is made specifically to any firearm in the article.)

To make a long story short, his daughter Ruth Elizabeth Wight (1864 - 1950) and her husband, Nathan Denison Bill (1855 - 1947) were made executors of his estate, and given "the remainder of my property and estate". If he still had the gun when he died, it would have gone to them.

Very cool.

Best wishes,

Roger aka Mr. Wonderful

Roger, last year I tried to get all of the probate papers from Emerson Wight's estate. Sadly, in what I got there was no mention of this specific pistol, but I can well imagine that if it was in his possession when he died, that it would have been inconsequential in the vast estate that was his. And that's assuming that he still had it, since it could also have been a gift for one of his many friends or business associates.

Unless I could find a repository for his papers (if such a thing even exists), and unless this gun is specifically mentioned in those papers, I suspect that this gun's history will remain a mystery. But what a great mystery to have!

mike

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I think I may have identified the engraver of this gun.

Apparently there was a Springfield engraver named Edward H. Buckland, who engraved some Smith & Wessons. One sold at a large auction house recently, and that gun lettered as having been engraved by Buckland. The engraving styles between that gun and my gun look very, very similar.

Anyone else ever heard of a Buckland-engraved Smith & Wesson?

And for those of you who are wondering ... no, Edward H. Buckland was not related to Cyrus Buckland, who worked at the Smith & Wesson factory in the company's first years.

Mike