Pietta Dance Firearms Company .36 Revolver

[sourdough]

This recently came up for auction and a friend of mine won it.

It is a Pietta Dance .36 manufactured under consignment by Tony Gajewski for a one-year run (BH/1996). Originally there were many more scheduled to be produced, but there was a contractual dispute between Gajewski and Pietta, so this revolver is one of only 35 produced with the Dance Firearms Company Angleton Texas barrel marking. Serial numbers are from C00001 thru C00035.

I am trying to keep a database of these revolvers and I know of three others: SN C00007 and SN C00030, and mine below.

I own SN C00013:

.

If anyone has any knowledge of others, I would appreciate contacting you.

Regards,

Jim

 

[jonathan butcher]

I was alos watching that auction, in the end I decided to pick up a Pietta Starr revolver instead, that said I'm def on the lookout for the next Dance .36 that shows up. Did you notice the green tint to the brass TG- what is that ?

 

[sourdough]

I am hoping for both the revolver's and the new owner's sake it is just the lighting in the photos.

 

[jonathan butcher]

I don’t think it’s lighting Jim, I noticed the green tint in all of the pics showing the TG. I’m pretty sure the brass TGs of all the Italian guns are coated, removing the coating allows the ‘brass’ to actually age.

I am hoping for both the revolver's and the new owner's sake it is just the lighting in the photos.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I remember seeing those all for sale when the collection was liquidated. Should of bought one as I had the chance, but then again these are extremely scarce and valuable and I have no use for guns too valuable to use in my stable.

 

[sourdough]

I have many Pietta 1851 Navy .36 "type" shooters (to include Confederates), so when #C00013 came up for sale at October Country I did not hesitate. It was offered as a cased set for $325, but none of the accoutrements nor the case were originally associated with the revolver. The case was in very poor shape, the bullet mould was corroded, as was the flask spout. I kept the revolver, sold everything else, and in actuality only spent $170 on the gun.

In 2010, Dr. Davis ventured that the revolvers were worth about $1,000 on the collector market.

SN C00034 was won by a friend as I did not want to corner the market on these guns.

Regards,

Jim

 

[Roy L. Oak]

We have come across something interesting that has caused our thoughts and thinking to "Dance"! It has been assumed that the 35 .36 caliber Dance revolvers that were made by Pietta and the 4 Prototype .44 caliber Dances with rebated cylinders were stamped with the following, "DANCE FIREARMS CO - ANGLETON, TEXAS". While looking at his Dance's last night Chad Fisher discovered that the word "FIREARMS" is actually "FIREAMS" with the "R" missing. Per Doc Davis's notes and articles that I had written from Doc's notes putting together a complete history of these guns, it was always assumed it was "FIREARMS" actually stamped on the guns. How could this be overlooked for so many years if all these guns were stamped "FIREAMS" with no "R"? Why was this done this way? Is it a mistake, or was it done intentionally and are all of these stamped this way?

If anyone in the group has any of these rare guns please confirm this. Here are pictures with descriptions of what gun it is in this post. If we are preserving the history of these guns I think every detail needs to be correct. Plus, this just makes it fun!

 

[nkbj]

Maybe the stamper was from Boston?

 

[Coot]

As it happens, I have one of the Pietta Dance .36 revolvers and it also has the 2nd "R" missing from "fireams". I had never noticed until now. Interesting. Perhaps on purpose to help it from being faked as an original?