Manufactured circa 1876-1877, this revolver comes with a series of letters from the Smith & Wesson factory regarding it's history. The first is a Roy Jinks letter, detailing the shipment of the revolver to Springfield Armory on 12 October 1876, in blue finish, 7 inch barrel and smooth grips. The remainder is a correspondence series between the S&W factory and the owner of the revolver, circa 1942-1943. In these letters, the owner expressed his appreciation for the revolver, whose smooth contours made it comfortable to shoot even with an advanced case of arthritis, and requesting a quote on having the grips checkered and the barrel shortened to 5 inches. In the end, the total bill was $4, which included factory hand checkering of the grips and preserving the martial stamps (according to the letters, S&W's checkering machines were all tied up in war production). The left grip frame is stamped "10-43", indicating the factory work had been done in October of 1943, the same time the original owner and Smith & Wesson were corresponding back and forth. Blade front and latch notch rear sights, with the two line Maltese cross flanked address and patent dates on the left side of the barrel lug, Schofield's patent on the reverse and the "US" and 5-pointed star markings on the butt. Sharply checkered grips, with "CW" on the right side and "JRJr/1876" on the left.