Jack
Yes - of course its provenance has an influence on the value of this gun.
It's worth more than a similar revolver that was shipped to Simmons Hardware
in St Louis.
You may have paid less than the gun is worth, or maybe even more than it is
worth. There is a cadre of collectors who focus on guns shipped to LEO's, or
to the military, or to a National Guard unit. There is not that many of those
guns in existence, particularly to a NYNG unit, so any collecter looking for one
of those guns would be willing to pay up for it.
This same scenario is true for any gun having something special going for it, and
this is an example of something special. I don't mean rare or scarce, but something
out of the ordinary. To give you an idea about what I am getting at, suppose that
this gun changes your collecting habits, and you decide to focus on, say, guns
shipped to National Guard units. Well, they are going to be hard to find, and its
going to take some legwork to locate any. And when you do, they will most likely
belong to some other similarly-inclined collector, who is not going to give them
away.
To realize the "true" value of this gun, you will need to find a collector who
has a focused interest in it. A pawn shop on the outskirts of a small town would
not be a good venue for this piece . Of course, if you can learn more about the
gun, all of that would be helpful. You may have to travel to where-ever it was
shipped, and hope they have some records buried somewhere. If its no longer in
existence, and all the records have been distroyed, then that is another story.
This gun would have been special ordered, because of the butt swivel. The barrel
length may, or may not, have been special. The 1899's and 1902's were standard
with 4", 5", and 6 1/2" barrels ; 6" was a special order. I have what I think is
a 1908 catalog, and the lists 4" and 6" as standard barrel lengths. The concave
non-medallion grips, shown in your picture, would be the right grips.
Oldflatfoot ( Lefty ) lives in upper NY state, and may have some further comments
about this gun, or its provenance.
Later, Mike Priwer
