A Collector Grade Colt Police Positive .38

M

McShooty

New member
I found this gun in the handgun case at my friendly, local gun shop on the day before Thanksgiving last November. It is a Colt Police Positive .38 S&W First Issue. It has a factory nickel finish and appears to have Colt factory MOP grips, although they are not numbered to the gun. It has no wear of any kind and appears to be unfired. A name is engraved on the right side of the frame. A couple of minutes on the internet identified the name as that of a long term police chief of a medium-sized Midwestern city in the early nineteenth century. The letter I obtained from Colt says the gun was shipped as a single unit to a large hardware retailer in Chicago in November, 1914. This leads me to think that it might have been a presentation piece. It is clear the Chief never carried or fired this gun. I am pursuing leads for further provenance regarding this interesting revolver.
 
Beautiful gun. The information on the previous owner adds to the value. If you could access the newspapers in that city, it might be possible to find out when or if the gun was presented to the chief.

Jim
 
Yes, I have to travel a ways to access the pertinent newspaper files but hope to do that some time this summer. I need to make a correction. I meant to say "..in the early ninteen hundreds" instead of the early nineteenth century in regard to the chief's tenure.
 
Very nice revolver. Did it letter as pearl/nickel? I actually have a membership to a newspaper archive site, so you can PM me the name or even post it here and I will see what I can find for you.
 
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JMO, but that's about as good as it gets, for collectible 20th Century DA Colt revolvers.

Nice find !



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On the left side of the barrel the gun is stamped "Colt Police Positive .38" and neither S&W nor New Police is specified. I understand that Colt never would have put "S&W" on one of their guns, but occasionally "New Police" will be on 32s and 38s, but not this one. The grips are an interesting issue. The Colt letter verified the nickel finish, but opposite "Type of stocks:" it said "Not listed". I haven't seen enough vintage colts to know whether the grip medallions are appropriate to the period of the gun or not. I will say the image of the rampant colt on the medallion matches the one engraved in the metal, left side of frame, pretty closely. So the image of the rampant colt, with a lance between his front legs and arrows in his mouth, was used in the early 1900s, if not before.
 
Take my word for it, all parts of the gun are polished to the same level. The fit, finish, action smoothness, etc., are entirely comparable to good, 20th-century S&Ws.
 
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