This gun was manufactured in 1854 at Colt's London Factory in England.  Somewhere between six and seven hundred Colt Dragoons of various configurations were produced.  The parts for the Colt London Dragoon were shipped to England from Hartford to be assembled in London.  The parts were apparently in various stages of construction.  Many of the barrels already had their barrel addresses and it seems the cylinders already had the cylinder scene rolls.  This gun is correct and has never been tinkered with.  I see no replacement parts.  It has completely matching serial numbers including the wedge and cylinder pin.  The loading lever has a different number, which may be an attempt to use an assembly number that is found on early Dragoons.  At any rate, the lever is correct, authentic and was engraved along with the other parts of the gun and assembled in this configuration.  The gun has a very nice, light patination with no pits of any consequence at all.  The frame, hammer, barrel, loading lever, trigger guard and back strap are beautifully engraved in the English style.  A clamshell appears on the back strap behind the hammer.  The frame and barrel have rope border treatment along with a very delicate foliate design.  The stem of the loading lever is also engraved.  It was done with a master engravers touch and is completely authentic Colt London factory engraving.  The grips still retain the majority of their varnished finished and are constructed from European wood.  When viewed from the rear, the grips are wasp waisted, which is typical of London production guns.  The cylinder still retains a respectable amount of cylinder scene.  However, you will note that it is very light.  This is typical of the London production Dragoons.  The cylinders sent for assembly from Hartford already had cylinder scenes.  But the English market demanded a much higher luster blue than the American market.  In order to get the high luster blue, Colt's polishers literally buffed the cylinder scene away.  In effect, when this gun was built and polished, much of the cylinder scene was polished away.  That is how the cylinder would have looked the day it was made.  According to Rosa in his book "Colonel Colt London" 200 dragoons were still in inventory at the Colt sales office in London by 1861.  Seventy three engraved Colt London Dragoons were shipped to J.C. Grubbs and Company of Philadelphia.  They were presumably sold into the American Civil War market.  This gun is very likely one of those 73 engraved Dragoons shipped back to the U.S. at the beginning of the American Civil War.  SOLD!!