Manufactured in 1925. The included factory letter states the revolver was shipped to Abercrombie & Fitch Co. of New York City on January 4, 1926 with a 7 1/2 inch barrel in .38-40 caliber, and blue finish. This was a single gun shipment. An unusual variation of Colt’s factory engraving. Only the barrel, cylinder and backstrap are factory engraved. There are several known instances where the renowned firm of Abercrombie & Fitch, upon customer request at the time of purchase, returned Single Actions from their new revolver inventory to Colt’s to be engraved. Colt naturally honored these requests, but the Single Action frames being previously casehardened permitted only blued areas of those revolvers to be engraved. Serial number 348033 was reshipped, this time factory engraved, to Abercrombie and Fitch on June 4, 1926. This sparse engraving, disregarding the lack of frame coverage, is Colt’s "A" style pattern. This particular Colt is photographed in a full color spread in the well known "A study of the Colt Single Action Revolver" by Graham, Kopec and Moore, (see color plate XI). The authors’ description mentions factory engraving at time of re-shipment on June 4, 1926, also that there are several known Abercrombie & Fitch shipped Colts that were returned and engraved on blued parts only. The casehardened frames were left un-engraved due to their hardened state. Formerly in the Mel Torme Collection and a Fine Collector’s Grade Colt featured in the major work on single actions. The top of the barrel is marked with the one line Hartford address, the left side is marked "38 W.C.F." and the left side of the frame is marked with the two line, three patent dates followed by the Rampant Colt, blade front and "v" notch rear sights, the serial number is marked on the bottom of the frame and twice under the right grip, 7 1/2 inch barrel, blue and casehardened finish, factory ivory grips with inlaid silver Colt medallions. The rear face of the cylinder is stamped "38" which is five numbers away from the revolver. Provenance: The Mel Torme Collection; Private Collection

Excellent with 99% of the finish, a small ding visible on the front sight blade and the bottom of the barrel. The frame retains 85% brilliant case coloring. The ivory grips are excellent with a beautiful aged patina with light stress/age cracks emanating out from the screw escutcheon and a tiny crack below the medallion on the right grip. Mechanically excellent.