Is the gun real?

[CT_civilwar_buff]

Hey guys, I know I posted a thread about a gun a few weeks ago and I am really coming close to financial needs to buy it!!! I just have one more question though and I thought you guys would be the way to go in finding the answer. I want to know if this gun is authentic so I thought I could get your opinion on it. Somehow I can not seem to be able to get these images in the description so I will provide the link. Thank you so much to all the people who have provided me with information about his gun and this unit.

http://www.jjhayeshc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=RNM

 

[hrobalabama]

Hey guys, I know I posted a thread about a gun a few weeks ago and I am really coming close to financial needs to buy it!!! I just have one more question though and I thought you guys would be the way to go in finding the answer. I want to know if this gun is authentic so I thought I could get your opinion on it. Somehow I can not seem to be able to get these images in the description so I will provide the link. Thank you so much to all the people who have provided me with information about his gun and this unit.

http://www.jjhayeshc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=RNM

I do not like an inscribed arm like this. The stamps don't look that old. Now this is just my opinion.
I have a collector friend who had a cased Colt Navy. The gun was well known among collectors.
It later appeared with the backstrap engraved to a Civil War General. The price had tripled but the "presentation" was a new add on. Perhaps in years to come, it will be accepted as a real cased presentation Colt.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

I agree with hrobalabama's comments. My thoughts: The "fonts" are mixed, and any kind of personalization on revolvers was nearly always done on the backstrap.
J.

 

[CT_civilwar_buff]

So are you guys saying this gun is a "fake"? @Jobe Holiday @hrobalabama

 

[Copperhead-mi]

So are you guys saying this gun is a "fake"? @Jobe Holiday @hrobalabama

The revolver appears to be an authentic Remington Army. The Confederate stampings on the bottom of the grip frame are highly questionable and the asking price of only $1,895.00 would indicate that the seller does not have too much faith that this piece was actually a Confederate issued gun.

 

[Frederick14Va]

The weapon itself appears to be authentic, abet in rather poor condition... The butt strap stamping I would be highly suspect of. Not the usual method, style, nor location that most pistols are marked. It was a common habit to take a poor to fair condition item that only had marginal value and mark/imply that it has some CS provenance thus attempt to increase its collector value. If your seeking a generic wall hanger that's one thing... if your leaning towards the weapon solely due to its reported CS connections... I would pass on that one..

You will occasionally find pistols inscribed... however these are normally found engraved... not metal stamped... as has been the more modern habit..

 

[Craig L Barry]

All good points to consider. However, when considering the "story" that goes behind any particular firearm, look at the facts and see if it could possibly be true.

Remingtons were not widely issued as service arms by the Union until after this gentleman lost an arm at Gettysburg. And they were never openly sold to the Southern states, hence it would have necessarily had to have been captured. So the revolver wasn't issued to him by the Confederate Government and he couldn't have walked in off the street and bought one from Remington. It sure has a great deal of use for a late war battlefield captured piece used by a one-armed infantry officer. How did he load it? Oh, never mind...your odds are already over a million to one that this is a fantasy piece.

There is a chapter on Confederate use of the Remington revolver in one of the two Unfinished Fight books. I forget which. They were fine revolvers but because of antebellum sales to the South, the Colt was much more commonly encountered.

 

[johan_steele]

Yeah no, someone got busy w/ a set of stamps in a fruad filled attempt to increase the value; that the asking price for such a marked weapon is so low tells me the seller knows it as well.

 

[Jobe Holiday]

CT_civilwar_buff -

Yes, I am in agreement with the others who have posted regarding your Remington revolver. The Remington is antique, the markings are not. In the late 1940's it was determined if an arm was marked as having been used by the Confederacy it held a premium in value over an unmarked one. That was the beginning of problems we have today. A dear friend has a beautiful Civil War imported LAC Adams Army revolver which has a bold "C.S." stamped on the side of the frame. The stamping was done with modern die stamps. I have known of this revolver for the past 50 years and that is the way my friend bought it in the late 1950's. So sad for an excellent condition LAC made Adams Revolver. No one has ever believed the markings to be authentic.
J.

 

[gary]

We had two objects, one touted as a presentation sword by George Washington to Baron von Steuben and the other purportedly was von Steuben's pistol. Both were fake and the former was confirmed by Colonial Williamsburg Curator Eric Goldstein who said the sword was a 19th Century pattern sword and not an 18th Century object. My clues were the primitive engraving that looked like I did it and its poor bluing. As for the pistol, it was a simple cavalryman's pistol that would not be something an officer would carry. My point, there's no shortage of forgeries out there and unscrupulous people who push them or are willing to wrongfully attest to their authenticity. Remember that R. L. Wilson (does all those big picture books) was nailed for helping perpetuate a fraud (c'mon, who engraves the bottom of a buttplate?).

 

[Patrick H]

I find the experts' comments very interesting and informative here. I would not have known about the stampings, etc. It's too bad about the missing piece of grip. Is the loading lever also missing, or just hidden in shadows? I have a hunch you could find a revolver in better condition (but without a provenance and without a confederate attribution) for about the same money.