New guy needing help on old revolver

[94 Wrangler]

All

I have in my possession a older brass frame single action revolver, nickel finished 3 1/8" long steel barrel. Caliber appears to be 22 short. Pull pin, roll out 7 shot cylinder.
On the top of the barrel is the following. Made for Smith & Wesson By Rollin White Arms Co. Lowe:l, Mass
The cylinder looks to be nickel plated and marked Patented April 3 1855 & Dec. 18 1860 There is no trigger guard / bow. Serial number 58XX The small wooden grips are a very dark, almost black in color. Over all length is 7 inches.
Any help in knowing this revolvers history and value would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance of any replies.

Dave McGrath

 

[model3sw]

All

I have in my possession a older brass frame single action revolver, nickel finished 3 1/8" long steel barrel. Caliber appears to be 22 short. Pull pin, roll out 7 shot cylinder.

On the top of the barrel is the following. Made for Smith & Wesson By Rollin White Arms Co. Lowe:l, Mass
The cylinder looks to be nickel plated and marked Patented April 3 1855 & Dec. 18 1860 There is no trigger guard / bow. Serial number 58XX The small wooden grips are a very dark, almost black in color. Over all length is 7 inches.

Any help in knowing this revolvers history and value would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance of any replies.

Dave McGrath

Dave, you've got something there. Please post some pix. At one time I had set out to collect ALL the Rollin White patent infringement guns. Read up on Rollin White. He patented the bored-through cylinder. S&W Paid him a small royalty, per gun, but he had to defend all the patent infringement cases. Rollin was going broke defending all the copy cats. He then went into business for himself, then, S&W convinced him to come back and amended the agreement with Rollin White (or something very near that). Any way, any guns that were in production at the time S&W did nice with Rollin White and then pursued all the patent infringements ... whomever was making them S&W cut a deal (I suppose with some but not all) to allow them to finish up with the condition they put that scroll on the top.

This one is very interesting because it was Rollin White's company that made it. There are others by other manufacturer's with similar scroll, e.g. Marlin and Moore are a few that come to mind IIRC.

Very interesting reading. Check it out.

 

[Aussie Collector]

Rollin White made around 5000 .22 guns in a few variations from 1860 ~ 64. The revolvers came with or without an ejector rod and another with cylinder replaced by a single shot block. Rollin White sold the company in 64 and it continued as Lowell Arms Co.

Obviously yours being 58XX indicated the production is closer to 6000, also yours would be around 1864 when they change the stamping to Lowell Arms.

From what I have read Rollin White made these guns for Smith & Wesson as they could not keep up with demand. Once the company was sold the agreement did not extend to the new company and they stopped production after producing another 5000 or so with the Lowell Arms Co markings.

For someone to give a value you need pictures.