Exhibition grade, inscribed mahogany brass-bound cased engraved Colt Model 1849 London Pocket percussion revolver serial number 134 manufactured circa 1853 with a five inch barrel and bearing several unique features. This rare and important revolver was assembled in London from parts that were manufactured in Hartford and then shipped to London when the Colt’s new factory opened in 1853.

The gun in very fine condition is exquisitely embellished in an unusual floral and leaf style of engraving to the barrel, frame, loading lever, hammer, wedge and grip-straps. This style of engraving has only been found on a very few early London Pocket revolvers. The top flat of the barrel bears the small hand-cut engraved barrel address of ‘SamL. Colt. London.’ reading breech to muzzle. ‘Colt’s Patent’ is also hand cut within a curved banner on the left side of the frame. Serial number 134 has a blued barrel and cylinder with a case coloured frame, loading lever and hammer. The brass trigger-guard and backstrap are silver-plated. This beautiful and unique revolver is complimented with deluxe piano varnished select walnut one-piece grips.

There are British proofs of Crown over GP and Crown over V stamped horizontally on the left side of the barrel between the wedge slot and the loading lever screw. The position of these proof marks on this revolver are unique. It suggests that the gun was proofed after being engraved and the proof-marks being placed in such a position so as not to distract from the overall engraving.

This is the type of engraved revolver that Samuel Colt would have exhibited at the Exhibition of Art & Industry held in Dublin in the year of 1853 to promote his new manufactory that had just opened in London. 

Cased in a rare brass-bound mahogany case, with central circular brass plaque hand-engraved “Charles Lennox / Wiyke Esq re”, surrounded by a sunken circular brass carrying ring. The case is lined in green beige. Accessories include: “JAMES DIXON / & SONS / SHEFFIELD” bag-type flask engraved “COLTS POCKET FLASK”, rare galvanised 500 count cap tin, with “W. & C. Eley” green label, London manufactured iron .31 pocket bullet mould with sprue-cutter stamped “COLT’S/PATENT”, L-shaped nipple key, iron-headed cleaning rod, spare main-spring and working key.

This revolver which is in fine condition is quite unique with its rare style of engraving, hand-cut ‘SamL Colt London.’ barrel address reading breech to muzzle and unusual position of British proofs.     

Sir Charles Lennox Wyke, GCMG, KCB (2 September 1815 – 4 October 1897) was a British diplomat.

Wyke was born on 2 September 1815, was the son of George Wyke, of Robbleston, Pembrokeshire, captain in the Grenadier Guards, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of F. Meyrick. He was a Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers, and afterwards a captain on the King of Hanover’s staff. In 1847 he was appointed vice-consul at Port-au-Prince, and in 1852 consul-general in Central America, where he had lost his health. The U.K. had a strong interest in the region, with British Honduras. On 31 October 1854 he was appointed chargé d’affaires, and on 8 August 1859 he was nominated envoy extraordinary. In the same year he was gazetted C.B.

On 23 January 1860 he was moved to Mexico as minister plenipotentiary to the republic and he was created K.C.B. on 22 May. In March 1861 Benito Juárez was elected constitutional president of the Mexican republic following his service as President during the three-year civil war (1858–60) with conservatives; he had succeeded to the presidency from being President of the Supreme Court with the resignation of President Ignacio Comonfort. During the war, Juárez had dictatorial powers. The war had left Mexican finances in shambles. Wyke was appointed to his post in Mexico to deal with the Mexican debt crisis. He and the French minister to Mexico, Saligny, were to collaborate on the mediation. Wyke drafted a memo to the UK government, with his fears of Mexico’s financial collapse and expectation of social dissolution there. “The blend was an ominous diagnosis of a country in the last stages of decay.” On 17 July the Mexican congress suspended payment of public bonds for two years, knowing there was the possibility of that triggering foreign intervention to collect debts. Juárez’s Minister of Foreign Relations Manuel María Zamacona had tried to ward off intervention and negotiated with Wyke, since the U.K. was the largest bond holder. They signed the Wyke-Zamacona Agreement on 21 November 1861, but Mexican congress repudiated it 22–23 November and Zamacona resigned from Juárez’s. The failure of the agreement left Juárez’s government isolated.

In consequence of the postponement of debt payment, France and England broke off diplomatic relations with the republic on 27 July, and Wyke left Mexico City in December with all his staff, with the failure of the Wyke-Zamacona Agreement. Wyke remained in Mexico to carry on the negotiations connected with the joint intervention of England, France, and Spain. When the design of France, however, to subvert the Mexican government became apparent, England and Spain withdrew from the alliance, and Wyke returned home. On 19 January 1866 he was accredited to Hanover, but in September his mission was cut short by the Austro-Prussian war and the annexation of Hanover by Prussia. In the following year he was appointed (on 16 December) minister at Copenhagen, where he remained for fourteen years. In August 1879 he was created G.C.M.G., and on 22 June 1881 he was transferred to Portugal, where he remained till the close of his diplomatic career. He retired on a pension on 21 February 1884 and was nominated a Privy Councillor on 6 Feb. 1886. Wyke died unmarried on 4 October 1897 at his residence, 23 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London.