And so the 19th of February is Confession Day (I didn't know this, I had to look this up). And so, I will confess that this revolver and factory letter are genuine, and, yes, I did purchase this revolver at auction in 2023, but the rest of this thread is a HOAX.
I was intending to bring this revolver to Concord with me, along with my 1913 production L C Smith typewriter, an index card, a blue ball point pan, a tea bag, and my tea mug, and entitle my display "Provensnce: What is It?". But I won't be there to do it, and so the five attached photographs will have to suffice.
First, I hope I have your forgiveness. I created this thread as an April Fool's Day hoax, intending to it being just that, thinking a few might believe it, but others would question this "provenance". This was going to be confessed, and this was to be a learning experience about "buy the gun, not the story". Which it took nearly a year for it to evolve this way—but I had to wait for Confession Day to come around.
Some questioned the front sight—very good, I might add—but I had a plausible explanation, as many do who make up stories.
It was stated that this "provenance" perhaps doubled or tripled the value of this revolver. Well, today that will be reset to what it truly is worth based on market conditions, and, yes, I decreased what I might have been able to sell this for in future, but it's not value I'm concerned about, it's the lesson this tale of provenance teaches us. Many unscrupulously sellers and auction houses are the reverse. They create elaborate tales for financial gain. I know one such rifle sold by a well known auction house gives a lengthy tale about the farm of which this rifle was found. Going into its history, agricultural practices of the farm that have nothing to do with the rifle, the reverend who owned it who was blind and used to roll down a hill in a wheelchair seemingly out of control, to scare guests and family members. This all is a story, none of it can be proven, but did certainly help this particular rifle hammer into the stratosphere. Now, I thought that rifle inspired me to create this thread, but a quick search on the internet reveals that particular rifle surfaced a few months after this thread was created. Nonetheless, there are so many faked provenance stories out there, perhaps it didn't take just one specific example to inspire me to create this thread.
Let's start with the creation date of my thread. 01 April 2024. That's a tip off. April Fool's Day! However, unscrupulous sellers don't just use April Fool's Day to deceive. They rely on the other 364 days a year to do so, and once every 4 years in the 29th of February as well.
I promise you, at least with myself, I'm completely above board 364 days a year, but on April Fool's Day, anything goes!
When I received this revolver, it had the "H.C.K." initials in the butt. Plan A was to come up with "provenance" involving a renowned individual with those initials who purchased it in 1915, but I couldn't find anyone meeting such criteria. Plan B—make those initials stand for something. If you have the letter "C",?no doubt a good place to start is with that "C" standing for Confederacy.
Civil War generals who fought on behalf of the lost cause always elicit great interest. And so, while I waited for the historical letter, I researched somewhat prominent Civil War generals alive well into the Twentieth Century. Basil W Duke came up. I got his 1911 book through interlibrary loan. Great, he's from Kentucky. No doubt, the "K" in "H.C. K." stands for Kentucky. From Basil Duke's Wikipedia page, we can see he had a daughter in Massachusetts and died in New York on the way to visiting her in 1916, and so my story was going to be about how he was in failing health but made a mad dash to purchase this revolver in one of his later trips north, assuming that the odds were this revolver shipped to somewhere northerly like New York or Chicago.
Imagine my amazement and delight when I did get this letter and it shipped to Louisville, Kentucky, Basil Duke's home town. Not only that, it shipped a month prior to the 50th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. All the pieces fell into place remarkably well! And, Basil Duke's memoirs being from 1911 and this revolver and my story dating from 1915, being subsequent to his book, made the actual story about his actions, thoughts, and actual location on the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Civil War. Never let pesky little facts get in the way of a good story that might result in ill founded financial gain!
And so, with very little effort, using household items that once cost very little to begin with (I think I paid $25 for the typewriter at auction a decade ago), I turned my run of the mill .22/32 HFT revolver into one of great desire, or at least much more interesting, through "provenance".
I present to you, Exhibits A through E.
Exhibit A: An L C Smith typewriter manufactured in 1913. Predates 1957, when Basil Duke's daughter typed that index card. Not that a typewriter post dating 1957 couldn't be used, but you might get hung up on a technicality, such as a font not commonplace until well after 1957. Not that you can tell that the typing is actually on a typewriter that predates when this revolver shipped, but it helps that it looks old. Julia Duke may not gave been one to even buy a typewriter, preferring to use Daddy's, perhaps, as she attended to her affairs later in life.
Exhibit B: An index card. Index cards are timeless—and believable!
Exhibit C: "Provenance" is more believable when it's signed. Now, matching this signature to the real signature of Julia Duke could quickly expose my hoax, but it's not readily available on the internet in searches for it. I'm sure there are examples extant somewhere in Louisville. Blue ink helps tremendously.
Exhibit D: An Earl Grey tea bag.
Exhibit E: A tea mug. Spill a bit of tea on the card, make sure the tea mug ring is evident. Ages that awfully new looking index card, and also, adds more credibility to the "provenance".
And so, yet again, buy the gun, not the story!
Caveat emptor!
They were readily available from the Factory, and you may recall that Reg Mags were even shipped with a spare.
