This is an attractive example of a very desirable pre-war Colt SAA that was made in 1913, that originally was factory recorded as follows: 45/c, 4 3/4 inch, silver ivory with carved ox head motif grips, shipped to Shelto-Payne Arms Co. of El Paso, Texas on August 8, 1913. The engraving covers half of the pistol and is in the standard Cuno Helfricht pattern that consists of traditional scroll engraving intermixed with various geometric designed borders and edges, with a punch-dot background for shading. The ivory grips have a checkered pattern on the left grip panel with the large raised ox head pattern on the right side. In addition to that the right grip panel has a large circular pin or broach also inset on the grip at the location where you would normally see the Colt factory medallion. On the face or surface of the broach are inset with numerous small diamonds, in a circular pattern that appear to be genuine. The most desirable aspect of this revolver is the period Gold plated finish. Colt factory gold plated finishes are extremely rare and usually done only on very special orders or for presentation firearms, due to their high cost and that fact that gold is not a very durable finish that would prone to high wear, certainly making the highly desirable revolver worth doing additional research on. As noted the revolver has the scroll engraved pattern on the top and rear section of the barrel the sides of the frame, and on the alternating chambers of the cylinder. The remaining areas of the frame, top strap, recoil shield and other chamber areas all have the classic Cuno Helfricht geometric designed patterns. The back strap, and trigger guard also have the same classic Helfricht geometric designed engraved pattern. The top of the barrel has the short two line address that consists of "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. Co. HARTFORD CT. U.S.A" and the left side of the barrel is marked "45 COLT". The smokeless powder frame has the standard two-line pattern dates without the Colt rampant horse logo. The revolver has all matching serial numbers on the frame, trigger guard, back strap, cylinder, barrel and ejector housing. The grips are unnumbered but has three-hash marks on the back sides of each grip indicating that they were assembled together and both has the same consistent wear patterns as the revolver indicating that they have been on this specific pistol for a long, long time.

Period re-plated, with 75% of the attractive gold washed finish remaining overall with wear on all the edges and high spots with actual flaking of the gold finish on the left side of the barrel, the ejector housing, top strap, and raised edges of the cylinder, with some finish loss on the back strap. The grips are very good with visible checkering on the left grip panel with a distinct steer head caving on the right side. The two lower corners on the right grip have chipped off and the bottom edges of both grips show some minor age cracks. Both of these are very common problems with ivory grips as they are also very fragile. This revolver is certainly well worth doing additional research as it undoubtedly was carried by an interesting western figure with the consignor stating his father (now deceased) had believed it belonged to a lawman. A very attractive example of an engraved, Gold plated Colt SAA revolver.