More Model 1849 Pocket Pistols were produced than any other of this maker's cap-and-ball firearm. Over its 23-year production life (1850 - 1873) about 340,000 pieces were made in total. Some 200 variations were produced during this time. This non-firing replica represents the "Wells Fargo" model which, with its 3" barrel was relatively easy to carry. The family of Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers has its antecedents in the earliest of the commercial revolvers marketed by the Paterson Arms Company of Paterson, NJ. The smaller versions of Colt's first revolvers are sometimes called "Baby Patersons" by collectors and were produced in small calibers ranging from 24-31/100-inch. The 31 caliber carried over into Samuel Colts second venture in the arms trade in the form of the "Baby Dragoon"-a small revolver developed in 1847-48. This was to be Colt's entre into the civilian marketplace-a hedge against the unpredictable nature of military contracts. The "Baby Dragoon" was in parallel development with Colt's other revolvers and by 1850, it had evolved into the Revolving Pocket Pistol that collectors now name "The Pocket Model of 1849 (Wilson 1985.) It is a smaller version of the "Revolving Belt Pistol of Naval Caliber" Introduced the same year and commonly designated (by collectors)as the "1851 Navy." KEY FEATURES: MEASUREMENTS: Item not permitted in Canada |
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