This Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver, .36 caliber has ornate factory engraving on the barrel and butt strap.
Although the revolver’s exact history is unknown, it was one of a shipment of eleven revolvers sent to Tomes, Son & Melvain, New York, New York, on November 27, 1862. The left ivory grip is engraved with the likeness of Sterling Price; the right grip has no engraving. Colt manufacturing records do not indicate the type of grips the revolver had when it left the Colt factory.
Although historians continue to debate Price’s talents as a general, there is no doubting the fact that he was enormously popular with his soldiers and with Missouri secessionists. During his successful political career he was a Missouri congressman and governor. In the United States Army, he served as a brigadier general in the Mexican-American War, and as a Missouri and Confederate States general, he scored impressive victories at Wilson’s Creek and Lexington.
It is entirely possible that an admirer acquired the revolver, had the grip engraved, then presented this token of their esteem to “Old Pap.”
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 11125 Object on loan from Albert Price
