PRIVATE PURCHASE REMINGTON NMA s/n 60415
£ 4,500
This is a very desirable private purchase, Remington Model 1858 New Model Army , Serial Number 60415, manufactured in March 1864.
While the vast majority of NMA's went to the Union Army, a comparatively smaller number were sold to private buyers, many of these examples were purchased by officers who wanted their own side arm.
In the early 1850's, Remington had the golden opportunity to study Colt, its designs and modern mass manufacturing techniques, before leap frogging ahead with their own robust and beautifully designed military percussion revolvers.
Remington were able to closely study Colt's 1851 Navy and draw lessons from Colt's revolver designs and materials, taking the design process for military side arms a step further, reducing the parts count and simplifying production.
They correctly identified the key weakness in Colt's designs, i.e open frame, locking wedge and cylinder safety pins.
This process was of course also driven by the fact that Remington had to side step Colt's patents!
Remington utilising an immensely strong solid frame, that neatly did away with Colt's open frame/barrel assembly and troublesome locking wedge and screw, Incorporated a cleverly designed combined cylinder pin and ram rod assembly, were the cylinder can simply be released by lowering the ram rod and drawing the captive pin forward and away from its frame slot, this means the cylinder can be removed and changed for a loaded back up extremity quickly and there are no other small components to loose.
In another innovative move, Colts easily damaged cylinder safety pins were replaced by robust safety notches.
The first design launched and accepted for service, was the Remington Beals Army revolver, chambered in .44 (and .36 Navy), this was rapidly replaced by the New Model Army, basically the same model, but tweaked for mass production and incorporating feedback from the Army, that included a lowered hammer, among other detail changes.
Though the Army and Navy Colt's will arguably always be seen as the 'iconic' 19th Century American revolvers, simply oozing Americana, this is really down to our modern day perception of past events, history as perceived through the lens of Hollywood perhaps...
This example was manufactured in March 1864, as a private purchase piece, as such, it lacks the military Cartouch, chief inspectors acceptance stamp on its grip, or any of the sub inspector stamps, that are usually profusely seen on Military contract revolver sub assemblies.
These private purchase examples were put together and finished to a higher standard than the Military contract examples (not to say that the military examples are poorly finished, far from it), but greater care and more time was taken in assembly, to ensure perfect timing and and a deeper finish was applied. It might possibly explain why private purchase examples, if well looked after, often seem to have more surviving original finish and seem to suffer less from the typical 'fish scale' type loss of finish, commonly encountered on Military contract examples.
This example has full matching numbers, to the barrel, frame, Cylinder and trigger guard. The three line Barrel address reads:
PATENTED SEPT.14.1858
E.REMINGTON & SONS.ILION.NEWYORK.U.S.A
NEW MODEL
CONDITION REPORT
Overall: I would classify s/n 102075 in (NRA standard) Excellent condition, full matching numbers, with 80 % original Remington finish surviving. Due to the finishing process used by Remington, that wasn't as durable as Colts finish, its rarer to see contemporary Remingtons with comparable surviving finish.
The blued finish appears to loose adhesion to the metal surface in certain areas and often displays a fish scale loss pattern on antique Remington revolvers.
The action screws are all in good order. The revolver operates extremely well, on half and full cock and indexes and locks up absolutely solidly, suggesting a revolver that's been well cared for and seen little use.
Barrel, Frame and Hammer assembly:
The Barrel has 80% original finish, with a clear Remington address and sharp edges.
The bore is excellent, mostly mirror bright, with clear and sharp lands and grooves, just the odd light pit and small areas of frosting .
The ramrod displaying much surviving finish, is in excellent serviceable condition.
The Frame and Hammer are also in very good order, displaying much original finish.
The Cylinder:
The cylinder is in generally good order, mechanically excellent, with good nipples, (Factory inspector initial 2) with very few signs of black powder and percussion cap induced erosion and corrosion to the front and rear.
This example has the last four digits of the serial number on the Cylinders rear '0415' along with the factory inspectors number '2' appearing twice.
this is seldom seen on Remington New Model Army revolvers and generally came about when some additional work was required to ensure lockup and alignment were within strict factory tolerance. The first '2' would have been to flag up an issue by that inspector on the line and the second '2' (accompanied by S/N, matching the cylinder to the revolver), signifying it had successfully passed the test, following rectification work.
Most unusually, this example still displays large areas of finish to the exterior of the cylinder, showing that this revolver has certainly seen very little use indeed and wouldn't have been carried in a holster.
Trigger Guard:
The brass trigger guard is in good order, displaying the last four digits of the serial number.
The grips are excellent and original to the revolver.
Length 13.25 in (337 mm)
Calibre .44
While the vast majority of NMA's went to the Union Army, a comparatively smaller number were sold to private buyers, many of these examples were purchased by officers who wanted their own side arm.
In the early 1850's, Remington had the golden opportunity to study Colt, its designs and modern mass manufacturing techniques, before leap frogging ahead with their own robust and beautifully designed military percussion revolvers.
Remington were able to closely study Colt's 1851 Navy and draw lessons from Colt's revolver designs and materials, taking the design process for military side arms a step further, reducing the parts count and simplifying production.
They correctly identified the key weakness in Colt's designs, i.e open frame, locking wedge and cylinder safety pins.
This process was of course also driven by the fact that Remington had to side step Colt's patents!
Remington utilising an immensely strong solid frame, that neatly did away with Colt's open frame/barrel assembly and troublesome locking wedge and screw, Incorporated a cleverly designed combined cylinder pin and ram rod assembly, were the cylinder can simply be released by lowering the ram rod and drawing the captive pin forward and away from its frame slot, this means the cylinder can be removed and changed for a loaded back up extremity quickly and there are no other small components to loose.
In another innovative move, Colts easily damaged cylinder safety pins were replaced by robust safety notches.
The first design launched and accepted for service, was the Remington Beals Army revolver, chambered in .44 (and .36 Navy), this was rapidly replaced by the New Model Army, basically the same model, but tweaked for mass production and incorporating feedback from the Army, that included a lowered hammer, among other detail changes.
Though the Army and Navy Colt's will arguably always be seen as the 'iconic' 19th Century American revolvers, simply oozing Americana, this is really down to our modern day perception of past events, history as perceived through the lens of Hollywood perhaps...
This example was manufactured in March 1864, as a private purchase piece, as such, it lacks the military Cartouch, chief inspectors acceptance stamp on its grip, or any of the sub inspector stamps, that are usually profusely seen on Military contract revolver sub assemblies.
These private purchase examples were put together and finished to a higher standard than the Military contract examples (not to say that the military examples are poorly finished, far from it), but greater care and more time was taken in assembly, to ensure perfect timing and and a deeper finish was applied. It might possibly explain why private purchase examples, if well looked after, often seem to have more surviving original finish and seem to suffer less from the typical 'fish scale' type loss of finish, commonly encountered on Military contract examples.
This example has full matching numbers, to the barrel, frame, Cylinder and trigger guard. The three line Barrel address reads:
PATENTED SEPT.14.1858
E.REMINGTON & SONS.ILION.NEWYORK.U.S.A
NEW MODEL
CONDITION REPORT
Overall: I would classify s/n 102075 in (NRA standard) Excellent condition, full matching numbers, with 80 % original Remington finish surviving. Due to the finishing process used by Remington, that wasn't as durable as Colts finish, its rarer to see contemporary Remingtons with comparable surviving finish.
The blued finish appears to loose adhesion to the metal surface in certain areas and often displays a fish scale loss pattern on antique Remington revolvers.
The action screws are all in good order. The revolver operates extremely well, on half and full cock and indexes and locks up absolutely solidly, suggesting a revolver that's been well cared for and seen little use.
Barrel, Frame and Hammer assembly:
The Barrel has 80% original finish, with a clear Remington address and sharp edges.
The bore is excellent, mostly mirror bright, with clear and sharp lands and grooves, just the odd light pit and small areas of frosting .
The ramrod displaying much surviving finish, is in excellent serviceable condition.
The Frame and Hammer are also in very good order, displaying much original finish.
The Cylinder:
The cylinder is in generally good order, mechanically excellent, with good nipples, (Factory inspector initial 2) with very few signs of black powder and percussion cap induced erosion and corrosion to the front and rear.
This example has the last four digits of the serial number on the Cylinders rear '0415' along with the factory inspectors number '2' appearing twice.
this is seldom seen on Remington New Model Army revolvers and generally came about when some additional work was required to ensure lockup and alignment were within strict factory tolerance. The first '2' would have been to flag up an issue by that inspector on the line and the second '2' (accompanied by S/N, matching the cylinder to the revolver), signifying it had successfully passed the test, following rectification work.
Most unusually, this example still displays large areas of finish to the exterior of the cylinder, showing that this revolver has certainly seen very little use indeed and wouldn't have been carried in a holster.
Trigger Guard:
The brass trigger guard is in good order, displaying the last four digits of the serial number.
The grips are excellent and original to the revolver.
Length 13.25 in (337 mm)
Calibre .44
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