This historic letter dated 8 July 1857 was written at a very interesting time of expansion for the Colt Patent Firearms Company. With the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, Colt saw a chance to greatly expand his European sales, particularly to those nations involved in the conflict, namely Russia, Great Britain, and France. One such transaction included 3,000 Colt Model 1851 revolvers sold to Russia in 1855. Due to a naval blockade by the British Royal Navy an attempt was made to secretly ship the revolvers hidden in cotton bales through neutral Prussia. The revolvers were discovered and confiscated by Prussia, leading to unwanted negative publicity for Colt, who was at the same time selling weapons to the British. This letter is from Colt's chief agent for continental Europe at the time, Charles Caesar, who would later (c. 1866) direct all of his continental sales through Colt's agent in England, Baron Von Oppen. This double sided letter mostly discusses, in some detail, Caesar's efforts to establish a Colt factory in Liege, Belgium, to which it appears Samuel Colt had previously shown some interest and even made promises to local officials. Elisha Root, Colt's superintendent at the time, is mentioned as one of the men possibly needed in Europe to help get such a factory up and running. It also can be deduced from Caesar's tone and language in the letter that part of the motivation for establishing a factory in Liege would be to squeeze out competitors who were currently infringing upon Colt's patents, also mentioned later in the letter, referencing at least two men that allowed this to happen. The letter goes on to reference a shipment of 3,000 arms to Bologne and that Caesar is hoping to take a two week vacation, possibly due to stress from dealing with the seizure of the Russian revolver shipment. The letter is addressed to "Monsieur le Colonel Sam. Colt" and includes approximately three pages of text, two of which are visible through a clear panel on the back of the frame. The document itself it approximately 9 x 16 inches, with the frame being 17 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches. Also included is a small (5 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches including frame) framed porcelain painting of Samuel Colt dated 1995 that appears to represent Colt at 18 years old in 1832, the back is signed what appears to be "B. Menheus/1995". Provenance: The Robert B. “Bob” Berryman Estate Collection