From the Facebook Group Cap & Ball Revolvers, Pistols and Rifles document tilted:
The BILL EDUARDS Addressed Revolvers which I wrote about a year or so ago and thought it might be helpful in this thread.
The story on the auction site, pertaining to an 1860 Colt Army being auctioned off back in 2010, goes like this:
"This is a late 1960’s-Early ‘70’s reproduction of the Colt 1860 Army Revolver in .44 Caliber, imported by William B. Edwards (Bill Edwards). The back story of this Revolver is that Bill Edwards, who was the founder of the Civil War reproduction industry and author of the book "Civil War Guns", was the first to start looking to have this manufactured in Europe and had these made to be imported. He had them marked “ADDRESS BILL EDWARDS AFTON, V.A. U.S. AMERICA“ similar to the originals that were marked “SAM COLT NEW-YORK U.S. AMERICA” that the 1860’s were known for. As for condition, it is in BEAUTIFUL brand new condition (serial # 8069) in the original covered box! This is an rare revolver, .i.e. the "One that started the 1860 Reproduction Crazy", waiting to be showcased in any SERIOUS collector’s display case!"
The buyer of this particular 1860 was Dr. James Davis of the RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector's Association) and he informed me of the following information..
Unfortunately, according to Dr. Davis, that story is not quite accurate. There is another explanation for this revolver and others like it. Here is how that particular 1860 Colt Army revolver....and other revolvers, including an 1858 Remington New Army revolver with the same address mark on it became reproductions and the rarest of the rare.
There were replica revolvers that were supplied to Bill Edwards, partner in Centennial Arms Corp., in an attempt to persuade him to use Rigarmi (RAG) as a future supplier of the revolvers. The revolvers so far uncovered that were sent to him are Remington New Model Armies, Colt 1860 Armies (the subject revolver above?), Colt Model 1851 Navies w/Brass frame and engraved cylinder, and a Schneider & Glassick which is an 1851 brass frame Navy with plain cylinder. At that time the plain cylinder on what is the Schneider & Glassick was an example of a cost cutting step in production. All four of these revolvers were in the RPRCA (Dr. James H Davis) collection and were obtained through auctions, on Gun Broker and Auction Arms at prices in the $1400 range per revovler. The three obtained on Auction Arms were posted by Sarco, Inc. Bill Edwards had presented these three revolvers to Charlie Steen, President of Sarco, Inc. four decades ago, after he had received them from RigArmi.
Rigarmi produced the four revolvers for Bill Edwards that bear the barrel markings:
- ADDRESS BILL EDUARDS AFTON VA US AMERICA -
The Italians mistakenly used the letter "U" instead of "W"!
From a letter Dr. Jim Davis received from William Edwards dated August 24, 2002, Bill Edwards states,
"In the 1970s I obtained from
Rino Galesi (RG) and from Luciano Amadi, Navys and Remingtons. These were roll marked ADDRESS BILL EDUARDS AFTON VA US AMERICA in emulation of Colt's markings as they consider that I was the spiritual if not the generic descendant of Sam Colt!"
So there we have it and how these revolvers came to be. And we notice that Bill Edwards stated Navys and Remingtons, plural. So we really don’t know exactly how many were actually sent to Bill Edwards. It seems, from further research that there may have been as many as three or four of each of the four revolvers, since we have come across at least three Remingtons that can be accounted for. Where are they now? As of April 24, 2020 Dr. Davis’ four revovlers had been in the possession of October Country and were available for purchase. Those were sold that same year. Since that time at least one Remington is in the collection of Mark Hubbs of Eras Gone By Bullet Molds and another has been in the collection of PathfinderNC of the Muzzleloadinf Forum. As others may come to light I will continue to update this document.
References:
Edwards, William B. “Unpublished research Notes for Civil War Guns and other publications” Afton, VA.
Davis, Dr. James H, unpublished notes and “Schneider & Glassick - The “Accidental” Replica Revolver”
I hope this helps with some identificationa dn Eras Gone and I need to get that list of known serial numbers going so we can begin to better document how many of these
From the Facebook Group Cap & Ball Revolvers, Pistols and Rifles document tilted: The BILL EDUARDS Addressed Revolvers which I wrote about a year or so ago and thought it might be helpful in this thread.
The story on the auction site, pertaining to an 1860 Colt Army being auctioned off back in 2010, goes like this:
"This is a late 1960’s-Early ‘70’s reproduction of the Colt 1860 Army Revolver in .44 Caliber, imported by William B. Edwards (Bill Edwards). The back story of this Revolver is that Bill Edwards, who was the founder of the Civil War reproduction industry and author of the book "Civil War Guns", was the first to start looking to have this manufactured in Europe and had these made to be imported. He had them marked “ADDRESS BILL EDWARDS AFTON, V.A. U.S. AMERICA“ similar to the originals that were marked “SAM COLT NEW-YORK U.S. AMERICA” that the 1860’s were known for. As for condition, it is in BEAUTIFUL brand new condition (serial # 8069) in the original covered box! This is an rare revolver, .i.e. the "One that started the 1860 Reproduction Crazy", waiting to be showcased in any SERIOUS collector’s display case!"
The buyer of this particular 1860 was Dr. James Davis of the RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector's Association) and he informed me of the following information..
Unfortunately, according to Dr. Davis, that story is not quite accurate. There is another explanation for this revolver and others like it. Here is how that particular 1860 Colt Army revolver....and other revolvers, including an 1858 Remington New Army revolver with the same address mark on it became reproductions and the rarest of the rare.
There were replica revolvers that were supplied to Bill Edwards, partner in Centennial Arms Corp., in an attempt to persuade him to use Rigarmi (RAG) as a future supplier of the revolvers. The revolvers so far uncovered that were sent to him are Remington New Model Armies, Colt 1860 Armies (the subject revolver above?), Colt Model 1851 Navies w/Brass frame and engraved cylinder, and a Schneider & Glassick which is an 1851 brass frame Navy with plain cylinder. At that time the plain cylinder on what is the Schneider & Glassick was an example of a cost cutting step in production. All four of these revolvers were in the RPRCA (Dr. James H Davis) collection and were obtained through auctions, on Gun Broker and Auction Arms at prices in the $1400 range per revovler. The three obtained on Auction Arms were posted by Sarco, Inc. Bill Edwards had presented these three revolvers to Charlie Steen, President of Sarco, Inc. four decades ago, after he had received them from RigArmi.
Rigarmi produced the four revolvers for Bill Edwards that bear the barrel markings:
- ADDRESS BILL EDUARDS AFTON VA US AMERICA -
The Italians mistakenly used the letter "U" instead of "W"!
From a letter Dr. Jim Davis received from William Edwards dated August 24, 2002, Bill Edwards states,
"In the 1970s I obtained from Rino Galesi (RG) and from Luciano Amadi, Navys and Remingtons. These were roll marked ADDRESS BILL EDUARDS AFTON VA US AMERICA in emulation of Colt's markings as they consider that I was the spiritual if not the generic descendant of Sam Colt!"
So there we have it and how these revolvers came to be. And we notice that Bill Edwards stated Navys and Remingtons, plural. So we really don’t know exactly how many were actually sent to Bill Edwards. It seems, from further research that there may have been as many as three or four of each of the four revolvers, since we have come across at least three Remingtons that can be accounted for. Where are they now? As of April 24, 2020 Dr. Davis’ four revovlers had been in the possession of October Country and were available for purchase. Those were sold that same year. Since that time at least one Remington is in the collection of Mark Hubbs of Eras Gone By Bullet Molds and another has been in the collection of PathfinderNC of the Muzzleloadinf Forum. As others may come to light I will continue to update this document.
References:
Edwards, William B. “Unpublished research Notes for Civil War Guns and other publications” Afton, VA.
Davis, Dr. James H, unpublished notes and “Schneider & Glassick - The “Accidental” Replica Revolver”
I hope this helps with some identificationa dn Eras Gone and I need to get that list of known serial numbers going so we can begin to better document how many
revovlers are actually out there.
I have been going through about the same thing in my search for more info about the Uberti and Pietta Dance .36 revolvers. I had been in contact with Tony's daughter about his notes and remaining revolvers but she seems not to be concerned (for our sake) as of late. It is what it is.
