Starr Arms Company Revolvers, ca. 1860
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GUEST:
The husband of a cousin of mine had owned these, and they belonged to his grandfather. And how his grandfather obtained these, I'm not quite sure. I think he was the superintendent of one of the armories, and so when he left the armory, maybe he took a couple with him. I'm not exactly sure about them, so.
APPRAISER:
Do you know who made these revolvers?
GUEST:
The Starr Arms Company, but I don't know much about the Starr Arms Company.
APPRAISER:
Well, the Starr Arms Company was located in New York, and we've got on one side of the frame, we'll have the Starr mark.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And on the other, we'll have the Starr's patent. It was patented in 1856, but they didn't go into major production until the late 1850s.
GUEST:
I see.
APPRAISER:
And this is what they refer to as a double action revolver. But that's not quite true; they're actually a self-cocking revolver. So when you pull the trigger, it cocks back the hammer, but it doesn't fire it. That's what makes it a true double action, is if it fires…
GUEST:
If it fires.
APPRAISER:
…As you pull it back.
GUEST:
I gotcha.
APPRAISER:
What trips the trigger and fires it is actually a small secondary trigger.
GUEST:
Alright.
APPRAISER:
And that releases it. It was state-of-the-art for the time, but sometimes state-of-the-art isn't well received.
GUEST:
I see.
APPRAISER:
The soldiers didn't like it because it would break easily, and so they made a single-action after this where you cock it back, pull the trigger, and it fires.
GUEST:
Oh, I gotcha, okay.
APPRAISER:
One neat addition on this gun, did you ever notice the little slide?
GUEST:
No, I didn't.
APPRAISER:
That's one of the first functioning safeties on a pistol, and if you drop that down, it will allow you to cock the trigger, but it won't hit that concealed trigger. It's actually a functioning safety, which most of them didn't have at that time.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
The Starr Arms Company made about 23,000 of these guns in total.
Did you notice that all four marks, there's one on each side of the grip, they're different?
GUEST:
No, I did not notice that.
APPRAISER:
Because these guns were 10,000 serial numbers apart, they had different inspectors at different times.
GUEST:
Alright.
APPRAISER:
So you've got an earlier production and a late production. One special thing about these guns is the condition. When you see these, generally, they're worn out. They're just gray guns. They have no finish. Oftentimes, the mechanics are broken. With these, the action's fluid throughout, they have lots of the original bluing case color. If you notice, it's even a bright blue. When you have it, it's just really pretty. So it's substantially better than most of the ones you encounter. One neat thing about these guns is that they were made under government contract for the Union Army. These guns, because of the condition, would retail for about $3,000 apiece.
GUEST:
Oh, really? Wow. I'm amazed at that. Very surprised.
APPRAISER:
Without this finish and this condition, they're a gun that usually sells in the $1,000 to $1,200 range, so these are substantially better than the standard ones.
GUEST:
Well, very good. That's very nice to know. Thank you for your information.
APPRAISER:
You're very welcome.
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