Triple Lock Provenance Fun

[quinn]

My 7.5" fixed sight TL was delivered COD, no address given, in November, 1910. The purchasor was a C.V. Davis. I had asked Roy some time back if he could discern any other info from his personal files. He added the fact that the COD was marked "cash only". A forum member had found this rare bird at a small east Texas gunshop and graciously allowed it to join mysmall collection. This was a very rare item as all but a dozen or less of the 7.5" TLs were target models.

Over the past few months of chasing leads and researching on Newspapers.com and Ancestry.com, I may have found the original owner:

Charles Vincent Davis was born in 1883, the son of an Irish immigrant. In 1910 the U.S. Census lists Mr. Davis as a railroad engineer living in Orange/Port Jarvis, New York. A later NY census lists his employers as Erie Railroad. Shortly after 1900, the Erie RR had been acquired by J P Morngan, and gained access to the anthracite coal mines of NJ. Erie was delivering coal along the eastern seaboard, possibly to include the S&W factories.

As this TL was possibly/probably picked up at the factory, cash in hand, how easy would it have been for the RR engineer to drop by the factory shop door to pick up a new gun while his load of coal was being off loaded?? No proof, unfortunately, but fun to speculate.

Not sure how or when the gun would have gotten to east Texas or who or when the steerheads might have been added, however, the stain patterns on the grips gave the ipression they had not been on this gun for very long. Searches for a C V davis with Texas connections was unfruitfu as were searches around the northeastl.

 

[rct269]

"---------all but a dozen or less of the 7 1/2" TLs were target models."

I wish my letter had said that, but it's good for the story anyhow! My letter says, "The number of these revolvers with target sights is difficult to estimate. It is my opinion that between 250 and 500 were completed with 7.5 inch barrels and some type of target sight." ( I took that "some type of target sight" to include those made for the Bisley matches in England.) Mine was just a regular, everyday American 7 1/2" TLT. How it came to live here is the story:

This goes back a mere 25 years (The letter's dated September 18, 2000.) I'm on the hunt for a TLT---figure to get a good one for $5500. Here's an auction catalog with one page devoted to two good ones. I forget which auction, but I know Roy's on their board---and I call him to see if he's seen these guns. He has not, but he's discussed them with the auction folks, and the consensus is the one on top is too nice, and has almost certainly been refinished. I register to bid on the other----and the time comes to saddle up! I tell the nice lady on the phone I won't be making any bids---to just tell me when it's time to buy the gun. She's back in about two seconds, and says "He's at seven thousand, do you want to go to seventy five hundred?" "Uh---no Ma'am, thank you; I'm out!"

I'm in a blue funk for a couple of months, and the phone rings. It goes like this---exactly like this: "Ralph, this is (So&So), SWCA. I see in the Roster you collect targets. Yes. Do you have a Triple Lock? No. Do you want one? Yes. Ralph, we have one. It doesn't fit in our collection, and we want to sell it. Ralph, it's the best one we've ever seen! For how much? Fifty five hundred dollars. What's the least you'll take? Fifty two Fifty. SOLD!!"

They don't want to ship it, and I don't want it shipped, so we meet at John Watts' home in Cincinnati, which is about halfway for both of us----and it's the best one I've ever seen too!!! (And it's one of how many ever 7 1/2" targets there were.)

A brief description of the best one either of us had ever seen goes like this: It was the last gun sold during the liquidation of my collection about four years ago, and it fetched $10,000!!!

Ralph Tremaine

Oh---and the gun at the top of the page in the catalog sold for $3500, so the folks there at the auction with eyes on figured it was refinished too!!

 

[Xfuzz]

Good detective work Randy...
Glad you saved the pic.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Searches for a C V davis with Texas connections was unfruitful.

Charles Davis died in Ohio and was buried in Port Jervis, NY in 1951.

Charles Vincent Davis (1883-1951) - Find a Grave Memorial

Who knows if he sold the TL or his only daughter, she passed in 1985.

 

[cgt4570]

Great research!

Unfortunately, my "apparently common" target sighted version shipped to an even more common distributor, M. W. Robinson in NYC in 1909. :-(
(I have its non-medallion stocks the letter says it shipped with).

 

[quinn]

"---------all but a dozen or less of the 7 1/2" TLs were target models."

I wish my letter had said that, but it's good for the story anyhow! My letter says, "The number of these revolvers with target sights is difficult to estimate. It is my opinion that between 250 and 500 were completed with 7.5 inch barrels and some type of target sight." ( I took that "some type of target sight" to include those made for the Bisley matches in England.) Mine was just a regular, everyday American 7 1/2" TLT. How it came to live here is the story:

Ralph Tremaine

Ralph: Roy has quoted the 250-500 total estimate for 7.5" triple locks on several occasions. He has also estimated that only aroun 2% of those were fixed sighted guns. That would be somewhere in the 5-10 guns range. There are 2 others known to be owned by SWCA members.

 

[mrcvs]

Ralph: Roy has quoted the 250-500 total estimate for 7.5" triple locks on several occasions. He has also estimated that only aroun 2% of those were fixed sighted guns. That would be somewhere in the 5-10 guns range. There are 2 others known to be owned by SWCA members.

I believe I might be one of those two…