Whomever built that revolver had quite the imagination! It reminds me of the Johnny Cash song "One Piece At A Time".
Many questions and comments...
1.) What caliber is it?
2.) What size is the frame? Is it comparable to a Colt 1851 Navy/1860 Army or that of a Colt Dragoon? The Dance .44 used a frame that was about midway between those frames, so the Dance .44 did not use a rebated cylinder. The Dance .36 used a Navy sized frame.
3.) If this gun used a Colt frame, I have no idea why the recoil shields were milled off and then replaced with crude recoil shields attached by screws. The Dance factory moved in 1864 to Anderson TX nearby the Confederate Ordinance Works which, I believe, produced cannon shells and other munitions. Although I cannot quote the source readily, it seems that many Dance parts were found at the site in later years. Although conjecture on my part, it could be possible that discarded frame(s) were found there.
4.) The barrel appears to be a Colt Dragoon .44, as opposed to a Dance, because it has a squared-off octagon barrel lug forward of the load-lever pivot screw, whereas with the Dance it was rounded.
5.) The load-lever latch is either the pin-and-ball type or the Colt Navy type (can't tell much from the first picture), and Colt Dragoons usually had the intermediary-type latch which was an upgrade from the pin-and-ball. All used basically the same catch on the barrel. The load lever is the Colt type, but it is crudely fashioned to resemble a Remington 1863 NMA/NMN.
6.) The cylinder has oval bolt stop slots with no approaches like the Colt Whitneyville Hartford and 1st Model Dragoons. The Dance revolvers had the rectangular bolt stop slots with approaches. (The pin you found in the arbor base is used to secure the threaded arbor to the frame.)
7.) The hammer, trigger, and bolt screws seem to have been either replaced by pins or have had the slotted heads filed off once installed.
8.) The hammer/mainspring is similar to Smith, Colt, Ruger, et al, DA revolvers, much unlike the flat spring of any Dance, Colt, Remington, et al, SA revolvers of the ACW and later eras.
9.) The trigger guard bow is quite something else. It appears to me to be fashioned from 3-16" welding/brazing rod, possibly brazed to the main section, and rounded for appearance. The grip frame is too short for a Dance .44, but approximates a Dance .36, and has an upward "lift" at the rear of the butt, as if someone used the butt of the gun as a hammer. This and the squareness of the trigger guard bow reminds me of the Griswold and Gunnison revolvers.
10.) I noticed in one photo of the left side of the frame a few indentations below the hammer "screw". Dance was known to use, in lieu of serial numbers (especially on non-contract civilian guns), zeros, stars, diamonds, and hearts in various combinations. I do not believe that anyone has deciphered what these variations are in any progression, and no Dance records reveal anything about this.
In the 1920's-1930's, when ACW era revolvers were selling for less than ten cents on the dollar (if that), many home gunsmiths/machinists bought them up and created working revolvers from parts and homemade pieces.
I have two good books on Confederate handguns, each containing a chapter about the Dance revolvers (and others):
"Confederate Revolvers" (William Gary, 1987)
"Confederate Handguns" (Albaugh, Benet, Simmons, 1963)
One would wish that one could come upon something like this found in an attic somewhere:
Exceptionally Rare Finest Known Dance & Brothers Confederate Percussion Revolver - Rock Island Auction Company
www.icollector.com
Or this:
Regards,
Jim