This high condition Colt Artillery Model revolver was reviewed by famed Colt historian and author John Kopec and is pictured and identified in Kopec and Fenn's "Cavalry & Artillery Revolvers" on page 96. In his 1989 dated letter of authentication Kopec observed, "This revolver left the Colt factory as an Artillery revolver twice. It was shipped on January 31, 1896 then it seems by the grips that it left the factory again in 1903. It is not altogether strange that this occurred as we have records of other Artillery Models which were refurbished twice. This revolver probably saw service during the early part of the Spanish-American War, then was returned after this service and refurbished again into the extremely fine condition that we find it in today." The accompanying factory letter validates Kopec's assertions. The factory letter states the revolver was initially shipped on March 21, 1887 in a 400 gun shipment, had a first refurbishing shipment date of January 31, 1896 (400 gun shipment), and had a second refurbishing shipment date of May 18, 1903 (500 gun shipment). The 1903 shipment was delivered to the Springfield Armory, Massachusetts. The factory letter continued, "[O]ur records indicate that subject revolver was returned to the factory for refurbishing on two occasions. The refurbishing consisted of replacement of worn parts, exterior refinishing, and reassembly without attention to matching parts." In his letter Kopec noted the unusual blue finished frame: "The rather strange color of the frame proper has not been observed by us before. We can only render our opinion as to what this rather strange 'blue-gray' color represents. Since this revolver did undergo refurbishing in 1896, the frame at that time was slightly buffed (only .003" of metal removed) it was undoubtedly re-case colored at the time as was the practice. When the revolver was re-submitted to Colt to be refinished again in 1903, the case colors were still intact, no further buffing was required, and the area was simply dipped into the bluing tank. The color did not take onto the old case-colored surface, but left it as we see it today, a pleasing blue-gray color." In Kopec and Fenn's "Cavalry & Artillery Revolvers" there is a small section dedicated to the "Full Blued Frame Artillery Revolvers" with this gun pictured and identified as an example of the "scarce, blued-frame Artillery revolver" (see pages 96-97). The authors noted, "The exact origin of these blue-frame revolvers has not been positively established. They are, however, an entity which cannot be overlooked by today's collector/student." The authors described the bluing on the frame as "rather translucent and a true blue color; it almost appears as though you can look through the color onto the metal surface of the frame." The DFC sub-inspected frame was manufactured in 1887. The trigger guard ("91966") was manufactured in 1883. The back strap ("120426") was manufactured in 1887. Letter "P" proof marks are stamped on cylinder and barrel. U.S. government inspector Rinaldo A. Carr's "RAC" initials appear twice on the bottom of the grip, and Carr's script letter cartouche is stamped on the right side of the grip under the date "1903." The top of the barrel has the one-line Colt Hartford address, and the left side of the frame has the three-line patent dates followed by "US." An included 1963 dated handwritten letter states the revolver was carried by a former Bakersfield, California, resident, Walter Parent, during the Philippine Insurrection. Provenance: The Charles Manuel Collection; The Dick Burdick Collection; Property of a Gentleman