CHIC GAYLORD FOR CHARTER?

[crazyphil]

I have this vintage Charter Arms Undercover .38 Spl. made in
Bridgeport sometime between 1967 and 1969. I have read that
these early Bridgeport Charters had the best finish and trigger,
and I know mine sure does. In an old edition of Guns & Ammo,
from 1981 Bill Jordan was asked what he recommended for a
backup gun. He said: "Charter Arms Undercover .38 Spl. just
6" long, 4" high and weighing 16 oz. would be my choice."
That was good enough for me. I had to have one. It is shown
below on the left.

I was looking through another one of my old gun magazines a
while back and came across a Charter Arms advertisement for
their Undercover. I looked closer and thought that is surely a
Chic Gaylord holster. I didn't know Chic made holsters for Charter.
A photo of the ad is 2nd from left.

I found a vintage Chic Gaylord while cruising on the Bay one day.
I'm pretty sure it is the one in the ad, so I started negotiating.
Just a couple of Bennys later, it was mine. So I kinda re-created
the ad, with my Charter and Gaylord. 3rd from left below.
By the way, that is also a Chic Gaylord gunbelt.

 

[rednichols]

It was Paris Theodore at Seventrees who made Charter Arms' holsters. I've several items of correspondence between the two companies.

The holster with the rivet w/b the earliest because Seventrees began with them a la Gaylord then stopped using them.

 

[crazyphil]

Red I respectfully disagree with you. A good friend of mine taught me
how to read stitch signatures. On the left is Chic's signature (on the left)
and on the right is Paris' signature. And finally, the back of the subject
holster from my #1 post.
Of course it is possible that the holster shown in the ad was made
by Seventrees, but it is also possible that Chic Gaylord was
making the holsters, and when Paris left his association with Chic,
undercut him and took the customers along with him. Not uncommon
in business.

 

[rednichols]

Red I respectfully disagree with you. A good friend of mine taught me
how to read stitch signatures. On the left is Chic's signature (on the left)
and on the right is Paris' signature. And finally, the back of the subject
holster from my #1 post.
Of course it is possible that the holster shown in the ad was made
by Seventrees, but it is also possible that Chic Gaylord was
making the holsters, and when Paris left his association with Chic,
undercut him and took the customers along with him. Not uncommon
in business.

I understand your logic, Phil . If your holster were marked Charter Arms then we could argify about the sewing pattern, but because it's not marked we know from the sewing pattern that it's a Gaylord -- so NOT Charter Arms. Make sense? Charter's were made originally by Seventrees, then I recall later made by Bell Charter Oak? Which changed the construction quite a lot to be Western School (welted like a Threepersons, etc.).

 

[crazyphil]

Here is the top part of that ad I posted first. Nothing important to our
discussion in it, but thought it would make the ad complete.
The Charter Arms logo on the back of your Seventrees holster is a good
point. Maybe Lefty will put in his 2 cents worth, if he still reads this
Forum.

 

[SG-688]

3 Charter holsters

2 Charter Arms holster factory pictures from 1968 and a picture of the back of an unknown date Charter marked holster with a rivet. (Oops. Same as Red's )

 

[OLDSTER]

This is my Bridgeport Undercover that I've owned for many years. I shoot it frequently, and it still shows the nice fit and finish from the early years .

 

[crazyphil]

OK I will concede that maybe the holster shown in the ad is a Chic Gaylord
design, made by Paris Theodore aka Seventrees.