VERY RARE CONFEDERATE DANCE NAVY REVOLVER

VERY RARE CONFEDERATE DANCE NAVY REVOLVER

01-29681 | Cal. 36. | S# 50.

There are 14 documented navy caliber Dance revolvers. There are excavated Dance navy parts, including unfinished frames with and without recoil shields, found at the Texas Confederate Ordnance Works in Anderson at the government pistol factory site which lends reason to them being made in Anderson after Dance Brothers move from East Columbia at end of 1863. However, all Dance Navy revolvers have the characteristics of East Columbia made revolvers without incised cylinder line, oval grip shape, and beveled frame to triggerguard interface. The only documented Dance dragoon with recoil shields was made in Anderson in 1864 and well documented.
The lowest known surviving navy serial numbers; 21 (battlefield relic), 48, 49, 50, and 51, have recoil shields. All other Dance Navies are made without recoil shields. The highest two serial numbers known without recoil shields, 56 and 63, show the transition from “recoil shield” to “no recoil shield,” as both have a vestigial cut line on the on frame outlining recoil shields. The other navies without recoil shields, the standard flat frame Dance configuration, are 83, 91, 93, 111, 119, 135, and 146.
Dance Navy revolvers with recoil shields are among the rarest of all Confederate revolvers with only 5 survivors known including dug relic. Subject revolver saw hard use, but all major parts are original. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: file of research, correspondence from Bill Gary when this gun sold as part of collection in 2011. My Dance Navy article from 2022. PROVENANCE: Harry Brooks Collection; Jackson Arms Catalog #9 where it was misidentified as a Columbus Firearms revolver; Bill Gary collection; pictured in the July, 1953 TGCA Magazine; pictured & described page 48 “Dance & Brothers: Texas Gunmakers of the Confederacy” 1986; pictured and described page 71 “Confederate Revolvers” by Bill Gary 1987; David Berenson estate collection 2011. STATUS: ANTIQUE.