Arms and armour
The top lot at Bonhams (25/12.5% buyer’s premium) in San Francisco on June 19 was an exceptional cased example of a specially engraved Colt 1851 percussion revolver with shoulder stock.
With London marks throughout, it was accompanied by a wide range of accessories including an English-style powder flask, tins of Eley percussion caps and a packet of six Colt skin cartridges. Skin cartridges were paper-wrapped charges for quick reloading before the advent of metal cartridge cases and primers combined as now.