Lot 163: Dance & Brothers Confederate Percussion Revolver

This Confederate Dragoon style revolver was manufactured by J.H. Dance & Brothers of Columbia, Texas, c. 1864 and is one of an estimated 275-300 .44 caliber revolvers Dance & Brothers manufactured during the Civil War. The revolver is pictured and described in Gary Wiggins' "Dance & Brothers, Texas Gunmakers of the Confederacy" on pages 104-105. Wiggins describes the revolver as "an extremely fine example of the standard Dance & Brothers six-shot revolver" that is still loaded. Three of the six cylinder chambers are period loaded. This revolver has the distinctive flat frame with no recoil shields, part-octagon barrel and nickel-silver front sight blade. The hammer spur is not knurled. The six-shot cylinder has rectangular stops. There are no safety pins in the rear face of the percussion cylinder. The revolver has a thick oval brass trigger guard and brass back strap. The one-piece grip is nicely figured walnut with a high polish finish. The revolver is not serial numbered but is stamped with a diamond with "O" on either side, the left side of the loading lever, bottom of the barrel lug, bottom of the frame, trigger guard, back strap and the left side of the hammer. All of the visible marks appear to be identical and matching. There are no other external markings on the revolver.

Extremely fine. The revolver is outstanding and completely original. Original Confederate firearms very fine like this revolver are extremely rare. The revolver has an even gray-brown patina with 60% plus of the original blue finish visible on protected areas of the barrel and barrel lug. There is light flash pitting on the percussion nipples and some traces of pitting on the muzzle, all the other surfaces are smooth. The flush-fitted screw heads on the frame, barrel lug and loading lever are free from screwdriver battering. The barrel lug has only a few very minor takedown marks around the wedge slot. The brass trigger guard and back strap are excellent and have a mellow unpolished patina. The distinctive markings on the frame and other components are extremely sharp. The nicely figured walnut grip is very good with only a few scattered very minor handling marks. The excellent grip retains nearly all of the high polish finish. Nearly impossible to improve upon.