A History of The Colt Revolver and the Other Arms Made by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company from 1836 to 1940

by Charles T. Haven, Frank A. Belden

large heavy hardcover with dust jacket

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the late 1940s the Winchester Repeating Arms Company commissioned Professor Harold F. Williamson to write the official history of the company in celebration of the company's 100th birthday. The result was Winchester: The Gun That Won the West published in 1952. Though out of print the book remains one of the touchstones for those doing research into the running of the company and it's many products. It is a business history and very academic. A History of the Colt Revolver and Other Arms Made by Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company from 1836-1940 published twelve years earlier is similar, but different.

As far as I can tell it was not commissioned by the company (though it's apparent the company gave the writers access to their records) , but was a labor of love by a couple enthusiasts. The book is large and chocked full of information about the company and it's products. The biggest difference between the one and Professor Williamson's work is the writers functioned more as editors and packed the book with a lot of primary sources that were simply added to the book in large sections. I am fortunate enough to have an original 1940 edition and one can tell that the book was a high end product. When first printed it had a relatively small run of 4,625 units according to Ray Riling in his bibliography: Guns and Shooting. The price on the dust jacket is $10.00 which seems small until you crunch the numbers in one of the many inflation calculators that are on the Internet and the price is approximately $180 (USD) in 2018. This was not a cheap book.

The book is divided into (basically) four parts. Part one is the history of the company up to 1940 and it's dense. Some of it isn't the easiest reading since (as noted above) the writers use a lot of primary sources. For example there is one long chapter dedicated to the Colt factory that was established in London in the 1850's. The factory only ran for a few years and then closed, but during it's time Samuel Colt wouldn't stop promoting it. This chapter about the factory is seemingly interminable and I skimmed through it. I know that there are those who are fascinated with this failed business experiment (ahead of it's time really), but I am not one of them. However that is not the norm for most of the book.

Part two covers the many different products manufactured by Colt and is excellent. I have an original edition and the quality of photos is outstanding. Though this section does not provide contemporary prices or the many different variants of the models it is still comprehensive and serves as a nice reference.

Part three is the advertising sheets that Colt printed for it's models. You can find these on the Internet now and there are many who collect them, but it's nice to have the many different sheets in one place. As with the photos the advertising sheets are reprinted using a very high end process and they are easy to read. Fascinating stuff if one is into collecting firearms (like yours truly).

Part four are the patent applications, which consist of long technical descriptions and schematics. This is probably of interest to the more pedantic among us, but they are still useful for reference and historical perspective.

All in all this is a very good book to have in a firearms library. Fortunately it has been reprinted a couple times since 1940 and it can be purchased from various rare bookdealers on the Internet with prices ranging from $600.00 - $25.00 (USD). I got mine at a yard sale. I found it in a box of twenty books and I paid $7.00 for the entire lot. A very lucky find.

[Trevor reads history · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly technical history of Colt firearms up until it was written not being a biography of its maker or company but a history of the firearms produced by that man and company

[Abram · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am an avid lover of firearms and Colt is the granddaddy of all revolvers. I was a little let down by this book, not so much by the quality of the book but, more in the quantity of detail. Is it possible to be too much of an expert on a subject? I guess I was searching for an introduction to Colt and what I got was a 7 course meal. I lost interest about half way through and was somewhat relieved to put it down when I was finished. I think this book is proof that you can study a subject you whole live and still not know everything about it.
Pros: good detail description, amazing photographs.
cons: will give you a serious case of the snores.