The accompanying factory letter confirms the revolver was shipped on December 17, 1892 and delivered to William E. Petty of New York City. No other details are provided. It is not often that the factory shipped directly to an individual as it was Smith & Wesson policy to work directly with its distributors. Shipping to an individual occurred only in special cases, usually when the individual was a prominent person like William Petty. As S&W historian Roy Jinks notes in the factory letter, "Petty was one of America's great revolver shooters. On March 15, 1901 Mr. Petty set a new 100 shot 20 yard record firing a score of 908. Mr. Petty was a great fan of Smith & Wesson's and used his New Model No. 3 to win many matches." This revolver has yet to be documented to any of Petty's wins. The "Report of the Police Department of the City of New York" for the year of 1904 lists 19th century champion shooter William E. Petty as serving with the New York City Police Department from May 5, 1884 until his retirement on May 25, 1904. Petty started the first organized police marksmanship program for the NYPD when future U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt was the NYC Police Commissioner. Petty is quoted in Richard Zacks' "Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York" (page 220-221) expressing his dismay over the lack of proper weapons training received by New York City police officers in the late 1880s. For Petty it was imperative that his students received only the best revolver training: "A trained marksman can disable a man where a bumbler might kill." The revolver is pictured and identified in David Chicoine's "Smith & Wesson Sixguns of the Old West" on page 392. The revolver is fitted with target sights, has the two-line address/patent dates legend on the barrel rib, and wears a set of checkered walnut grips. The left side of the grip frame has a S&W factory rework star and May 1970 ("570") factory return date. Matching serial numbers appear on the butt, right grip panel, cylinder, barrel latch ("740"), and barrel. Provenance: The Supica Collection

Fine, retaining 99% plus of the factory reapplied nickel plating with some scattered handling marks. The grips are very good with an applied coat of varnish. Mechanically excellent. A known target revolver shipped to international target shooting champion and forefather of police marksmanship training William E. Petty.