1848 was the first year when Samuel Colt claimed that his patents, designs and his Hartford manufactory all coalesced into a profitable enterprise. His journey to this stage of his life had been fraught with mishaps, economic reversals and the failure of his original Patent Arms Manufacturing Company. However, by 1848, Colt was well on his way to becoming the “American Legend” as some arms historians have referred to him. 

1848 was also a year of civil unrest in Europe, as young people around the world looked to the American model of government and began to agitate for the end to the oppressive regimes that many of them were living under. For the previous two decades, groups around the world taking the monikers of “Young Italy”, “Young Ireland” and “Young Germany” to name just a few, had been organizing to help establish new democratic governments in their countries. Even the United States had its own “Young America” movement that supported the democratic movements around the world and further supported the concept of Manifest Destiny for the United States in North America and potentially extending it to Central and South America. In 1848, much of the European agitation erupted into armed rebellion. This started in France in February of 1848 and quickly spread to Sicily, the Italian States, the Austrian and Hungarian Empires, the Netherlands and many of the member states of the German Confederation. In all, some fifty European countries would become embroiled in this civil unrest that would be called the “Spring of Nations” the “Springtime of the Peoples” and the “Year of Rebellion”. In this chaotic situation, Samuel Colt saw a business opportunity. Despite the fact that his business was just starting to be truly successful in the United States and that American competitors were starting to violate his patents; Colt saw the European upheaval as a chance to enter a new market. 

In the late 1830s Colt had visited England and Europe to secure patent protections for his designs, with mixed results. Now, with Europe on fire he turned his gaze again across the Atlantic to secure patent protection for his newest products and to sell his revolvers to those willing to pay for them. As he would show in the months leading up to the American Civil War, as well as for some time after the firing on Fort Sumter, Colt was interested in sales of his firearms, not in politics or ideology. He cared little if his customers were the oppressors or the oppressed, the rebels or the ruling regime. He simply wanted to sell guns, to all of them.

However, Colt acted too slowly and by the time he embarked for Europe on May 2, 1849, aboard the steamer Europa, the rebellions had largely fizzled out. While some reforms were secured by the protestors, like the abolition of serfdom in Austria and Hungry, the abolishment of absolute monarchy in Denmark and establishment of a representative democratic government in the Netherlands, much of Europe returned to the previous status quo of monarchial rule. Despite the opportunities he may have missed for immediate sales, Colt continued on his course of securing European patents where he could. Always looking to the future, Colt knew that patent protection would help to prevent the manufacturers in those countries where he could obtain the patents from producing arms based on his designs without paying royalties to Colt. But the patents did more than that. They also helped to protect his “brand” as low quality; poorly built, unlicensed copies of his guns would hurt his reputation and his sales. The average person would not necessarily know that they had not purchased a real Colt firearm, and their bad experiences with sub-standard copies would create substantial ill-will for his real products.

During the 1849 excursion Colt did arrange a licensing agreement in Austria, which granted Joseph Ganahl of Innsbruck, Austria the exclusive rights to manufacture Colt patent revolvers for five years, through August of 1854. Ganahl was one of the handful of Austrian manufacturers who held a royal appointment allowing him to manufacture firearms. Ganahl’s company was the Kaiserlich-Koeniglich Privilegierten Maschinen und Spinnen Fabrik, abbreviated as the KKP and translated as the Imperial & Royal Privileged Machinery, Textile and Spinning Factory. During the next few years Ganahl would produce his own interpretation of the Colt Dragoon, primarily for use by the Austrian Navy.

From an immediate financial standpoint, the Ganahl agreement put cash directly in Colt’s pocket. But his other efforts had longer lasting economic ramifications. In England Colt received British Patent #12668/1849 for his revolver design, with the patent drawings showing one of his early Dragoon design variants that still used the side-mounted loading lever from the latter part of Paterson production. The following year, in March 1850, Colt was granted Belgian Patent #1217 for his revolver design concepts. In both cases, the most important salient features that were protected was the actuation of cylinder rotation by the cocking of the hammer, which also activated the bolt stop and locked the cylinder in place. 1850 was a busy year for Colt as he was now actively protecting his rights around the world, both via lawsuits in America and by securing patents around the globe.

It was 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition (often referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition) in London, that made Colt a world-renowned name. The success of the arms that he displayed was reported in newspapers in England, Europe and America and likely in all corners of the globe. Some enterprising Belgian gun makers even displayed Colt “Brevete” revolvers. “Brevete” was the French word for “Patent”. One of the most popular guns displayed by Colt was his new belt model revolver which the world would come to know as the Colt Model 1851 Navy. This gun would become one of the most successful of the Colt percussion revolver designs, second only to the 1849 Pocket Model, in terms of length of production and numbers produced. This would be the gun that would become most popular with the Belgian makers who would produce copies of Colt revolvers for the next few decades, both licensed legal guns and illegally produced unlicensed counterfeits.

In an attempt to control the flow of legally and illegally made “Colt” revolvers from the numerous arms makers of Liège, a Belgian representative was engaged by Colt to monitor the flow of arms through the Liège proof house. M Devos-Sera was responsible for inspecting the revolvers that were flowing through the proof house and collecting a 10-franc royalty from those that utilized Colt’s protected designs and were also up to the standards of Colt production. As noted, Colt had a vested interest in making sure that any guns produced under his patents be quality arms. It was Mr. Sera’s job to collect the royalties from the guns that passed his quality control inspections, and he was legally able to confiscate those that were made without a license if the guns were not good enough or if the maker refused to pay the royalty. After acceptance, and royalty payment, Sera was to mark the barrels of the guns with a two-line stamp that either read COLT / BREVETE or COLT / PATENT. It is believed that the ones marked “Brevete” were for sale in Europe while the ones marked “Patent” were destined for English speaking countries.

The study of the Belgian-made Colt “Brevete” revolvers is a confusing and complicated web of makers, suppliers and guns that range from poor quality, illegally made copies to licensed products that were of nearly the same high quality as Colt’s Hartford-made guns themselves. The most in-depth study to date was undertaken by Ron Paxton & Roy Marcot in their book Colt Brevete Revolvers, which I have relied upon heavily in writing the background information on the Colt Brevete. The authors note that despite their years of research and examination of numerous extant examples, there still remains much about these arms and their production that is unknown and may never be known.

A number of major Liège makers produced quality, legal copies of Colt revolvers, including N. Gilon, P.J. Fagard, L. Ghaye, J.A. Petry and Auguste Francotte. Sometimes these guns were marked by their makers in obvious ways, like the N. Gilson name on the barrel or face of the cylinder or P.J. Fagard’s name inside the triggerguard. More often the markings are less obvious, if they are present at all. Sometimes only initials are present and sometimes no marks are present at all. The presence of absence of the marks does not necessarily help a collector to determine who actually made the gun, or if the maker produced all of the parts in the gun themselves. Much like the English gun trade in Birmingham, the Liège gun trade was in many cases a cottage industry that relied upon many small makers and suppliers to feed parts and fully assembled arms to larger makers. While some very large makers like Francotte operated in a more traditional “factory” setting, many more were small makers working on a piece-work basis. That meant that specialized craftsmen were producing various parts which were then gathered and assembled by other small makers or even the largest makers. To further muddy the waters, Colt soon realized that he could provide Hartford-made parts to the Liège trade and could make money both by collecting royalties and by selling gun parts. Major Hartford-made components that appear from time to time in Liège-made Brevete revolvers include barrels, frames and cylinders. The cylinders are of interest as they are the only ones that appear in Colt Navy Brevete revolvers with the real Ormsby roll engraved Naval Engagement scene. Other Brevete 1851 Navy revolvers have a wide variety of cylinder scenes, with Paxton & Marcot depicting ten known variations. They also note that these scenes were hand engraved rather than roll engraved as were the Colt scenes, which means even within the basic design there is great variation.

Offered here is very attractive example of a Belgian Patent Infringement Colt Navy Revolver that was produced by Charles Charlier of Liege. Charlier worked as a gunmaker from circa 1847-1865 and received no fewer than five firearms patents, including at least three for revolvers, which were issued in 1857, 1858 and 1859. His Belgian patent #10,390 granted on 12 December 1857 was the one that covered the mechanism used in this particular revolver and interestingly, is really a violation of Colt’s patent regarding the rotation of a revolver’s cylinder by the operation of the hammer and the cylinder’s lock up. Charlier made a small change in the operation of the bolt stop and its accompanying spring, but a critical analysis reveals that this design largely violates Colt’s patent held in Belgium. Charlier was a particular thorn in Colt’s side and was one three prominent Belgian gun makers that had be identified by Mr. M Devos-Sera as problematic in terms of producing patent infringement guns. As early as November of 1851 Colt’s English attorney who was helping to enforce his patents in England and Europe had written to Colt to make him aware of Charlier’s infringement. Devos-Sera did what he could to try to prevent Charlier from continuing to violate the patent, but his efforts were ineffective. By early 1853 Devos-Sera was trying to get Newton to come to sort of arrangement with Charlier and a letter from Newton to Colt dated 3 February 1853 noted that Devos-Sera was encouraging that Newton “settle matters with the infringers at one, as Charlier’s pistol….is now walking off with the best part of the commission in consequence of its low price.” Eventually a lawsuit was brought against Charlier circa 1857-58 to end his production of infringement Colt patent handguns and this finally curtailed his production. There is actually an unfinished example of a Charlier produced handgun of the same pattern offered here in the collection of the Connecticut State Museum. The revolver was obtained by Colt as a sample for use in the patent infringement lawsuit against Charlier.

The Belgian Patent Infringement Colt Navy Revolver by Charles Charlier that is offered here, is one of his 1857 patent handguns. While the elongated frame, spur triggerguard and European style grip angle do not immediately bring a Colt revolver to mind, a second glance makes it clear that the gun is really just a European style Colt Navy revolver. The revolver is a 9mm (nominally .35 calbier) open top single action percussion handgun with a six-chambered unfluted cylinder and a 6.25” octagonal barrel. The two-piece design uses a wedge to secure the barrel section of the revolver to the frame just like the Colt. The barrel and toggle-link loading lever that is secured by a spring-loaded wedge-shaped latch are pure and classic Colt designs as well. The rear portion of the gun has a very sleek European appearance but violates Colt’s patent by utilizing Colt’s single action mechanism which rotates the cylinder by way of a spring-loaded hand that is actuated by the cocking action of the hammer and engages a ratchet on the rear face of the cylinder. The frame has a large capping recess cut into the right side of the recoil shield and a finger spur projects from the bottom rear of the triggerguard. The hammer has a very tall, nearly 90-degree spur and like a Colt utilizes a notch in the hammer nose as a rear sight. The front sight is a small, narrow, dovetailed blade. The finish is blue throughout with varnished figured walnut grips. The markings on the gun are minimal. The bottom of the barrel is stamped in two lines CH CHARLIER/BREVETE, clearly referencing his 1857 patent. A small {CROWN}/D inspection mark is present on the left side of the barrel web, above the wedge and forward of the forcing cone. The number 12, likely the serial number, is stamped on the lower part of the frontstrap, above the butt. Those are the only external markings. The Belgian style file slash assembly mating mark | | which could be interpreted as a Roman numeral “2” is found on the rear face of the barrel web, on the cylinder arbor pin, on the lower right side of the grip frame under the grip and on the grip screw. The rear face of the cylinder is stamped with a 2 to match the | | file slash mark and is also stamped with an E/LG/* in an oval proof mark. The right grip has a weak white grease pencil 2 inside of it. The grip frame is additionally marked with the initials SJ on the left side under the grip and with a {CROWN}/M inspection on the right side under the grip. The cylinder is engraved with sporting scenes including a mounted man chasing a running fox and a marsh scene with a crane in flight.

The revolver remains in about FINE condition and is fairly crisp. The barrel retains about 70%+ original blue with thinning, scattered scuffs and marks, scratches and wear. The frame retains about 80%+ of the blued finish with the greatest thinning and loss on the backstrap and gripstrap. The cylinder retains about 25% of its blued finish with moderate amounts of thinning and wear. The loading lever and hammer both retain about 50% of their blued finish with thinning and fading and some loss due to operational, high edge and contact wear. The few external markings remain clear and crisp, and the cylinder scene is very crisp and sharp, remaining about 90%+ visible. The internal markings, particularly on the rear face of the cylinder, are not quite as crisp. The metal is mostly smooth throughout with some scattered patches of minor surface oxidation and light surface roughness present, mostly on the barrel. The metal also shows some scattered minor nicks, dings and impact marks. The revolver is mechanically functional and time, indexes and locks up as it should. The bore is in about VERY GOOD condition and retains deep ten-groove rifling. The bore is moderately oxidized and shows scattered light pitting along its length. The two-piece wood grips are in about FINEcondition and retain about 80%+ of their varnished finish. The grips are nicely figured and are very attractive. The grips do show some scattered bumps, dings and handling marks but remain quite crisp and match the overall condition of the revolver quite well.

Overall, this is a really attractive example of a Belgian Patent Infringement Colt Navy Revolver by Charles Charlier. The gun is in very nice condition and is 100% complete, correct and original. The gun was made by one of the major Colt patent infringers in Belgium, a gunmaker who was eventually sued to Colt for violating Colt’s patents. This would be a fine addition to any collection of Colt Brevete or patent infringement revolvers and would not be out of place in an advanced Colt collection as well, since one of these guns was acquired by Colt for use during the lawsuit and that gun remains in Connecticut State Museum, along with other items from the Colt Factory Collection. I am quite sure you will be very pleased with this attractive and interesting Colt patent infringement revolver.

ON HOLD  / LAYAWAY