Lot Essay
A comparable revolver built on a different Smith & Wesson action, most probably the .44 calibre Model No.3 'Old Model Russian', is reserved in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (No. 8137).
An estimated seventy thousand standard specification Smith & Wesson Model 3 'Russian' Second Model single-action revolvers were built under contract in Russia. It is likely that the highly elaborate silver-stocked example in The Hermitage was an individual production intended as a gift to a high ranking Russian officer or official prior to the award of the contract.
The same may be said for the present example, it being more elaborately decorated than the Hermitage example. These two would appear to be the only surviving examples stocked in this luxurious Caucasian style, almost certainly from the Tula Arms Factory.
See Claude Blair, Pistols of the World, 1968, no.707; and Leonid Tarassuk, Antique European and American Firearms at the Hermitage Museum, 1971, no.498.
An estimated seventy thousand standard specification Smith & Wesson Model 3 'Russian' Second Model single-action revolvers were built under contract in Russia. It is likely that the highly elaborate silver-stocked example in The Hermitage was an individual production intended as a gift to a high ranking Russian officer or official prior to the award of the contract.
The same may be said for the present example, it being more elaborately decorated than the Hermitage example. These two would appear to be the only surviving examples stocked in this luxurious Caucasian style, almost certainly from the Tula Arms Factory.
See Claude Blair, Pistols of the World, 1968, no.707; and Leonid Tarassuk, Antique European and American Firearms at the Hermitage Museum, 1971, no.498.