This is a really nice, early Athens production, Cook & Brother Cavalry Carbine.  It may in fact be, the earliest known Athens made Cavalry Carbine.  On page 53 of the Confederate Carbines & Musketoons book by Dr, Murphy,  he illustrates a Cook Carbine SN2719, which he believes is the earliest known Carbine he could find.  This gun is 58 numbers earlier.  It has a 21 inch barrel and is  36 1/2 inches in overall length.  The gun retains the two piece New Orleans style trigger guard and the New Orleans style rammer assembly.  It has all matching serial numbers to include barrel, lock, barrel bands, nose cap, lock screws and the tang screw.  The metal surfaces are smooth with a nice brown patination and the brasses are lightly patinaed.  The barrel has legible barrel markings behind the rear sight.  The bore has some pitting with very clear and distinct rifling.  The wood on this gun is in very nice condition with no burn out behind the bolster.  It is scorched but there is no real wood loss.  The stock is not made of walnut but appears to be made of cherry wood.  Cook & Brother used both walnut and cherry wood interchangeably.  The cherry has a little denser grain and does not turn as dark as the walnut does.  You will note that this gun does not have sling swivels.  Dr. Murphy pointed out clearly that the gun he illustrated in his book, Serial number 2719 did not have sling swivels.  Like this gun, it only had the carbine bar and ring.  The trigger guard tang on this gun has cracks in it and somebody has added an extra screw.  It is solid and stable.  This is one of the nicest Cook & Brother products I have come across.  Click on image for detail photos!   P.O.R. SOLD!!

A Confederate Kerr Revolver manufactured by London Armoury Company.  The gun is smooth with brown patination and liberal traces of finish.  The grips are nicely checkered with minimal wear.  The lock is marked "LONDON ARMOURY CO."  The right frame is marked "Kerr's Patent 9754.  The left frame is marked with the London Armoury logo and the left rear flat of the barrel is stamped with the initials L.A.C.  The action functions quite nicely on the gun.  It cocks, rotates the cylinder and locks nicely.  The gun is 11 serial numbers from a gun that is listed on the Pratt List (serial number SN9740).  This gun does not have a JS & Anchor mark in the stock, nor should it.  Price $3,950.00.  Reduced $3250.

This is a solid, honest, very good condition 6 1/2 inch barrel Civil War era Manhattan Revolver.  It is five shot 36 caliber with a smooth, light paintation.  It has the one line Newark barrel address and 1859 patent date on the cylinder.  All components have matching numbers except for the unnumbered barrel wedge.  The barrel address and cylinder scene are fully legible.  The cylinder scene has light holster wear but is still quite prominent.  The grips are perfect with about ninety five percent original varnish.  There is significant traces of silver plating remaining on the back trap and trigger guard.  It has nice rifling in the bore and the action works perfectly.  Overall, it is a tight, well cared for little gun.  Price $950.00.  Reduced $750.00

William A. Albaugh in his book, "CONFEDERATE ARMS" describes T. W. Radcliff as gun smith and sporting goods dealer.  He was active in Columbia, South Carolina from about 1846 to 1865.  This gun would appear to be made in the early to mid 1850's.  It is in 50 caliber smooth bore with approximately a ten inch barrel.  The lock is marked T. W. Radcliff & Co and the barrel is marked T. W. Radcliff & Company, Columbia, S.C.  The wood is highly figured American walnut.  The metal components are beautifully engraved.  The workmanship rivals or exceeds anything made in the South prior to the American Civil War and that includes the Natchez, Mississippi guns.  It is a highly crafted gun made for a well heeled clientele.  The gun has seen use but has held up very nicely.  The shroud on the hammer nose has chipped.  There is a small crack in the stock at the nose cap on the left side and minor dents & dings.  The metal is smooth with no significant pitting.  The gun has overall a nice, light patination.  There are two gold bands at the patent breech and a platinum clean out plug on the bolster.  The checkering on the grip is nice and strong.  The lock mechanism is crisp.  It is truly an exquisite piece of work.

Ratcliff is hinself not only an accomplished gunsmith but quite a historic figure.  He formed a unit, The Chacora Rifles and served as its captain at the start of the war.  Later, he was in charge of the training camp at Lightwood Knot Spring with the rank of Major.  He also joined with William Glaze in an attempt to establish an armory and arsenal during the war.  Apparently this venture never got beyond the planning stage.

This is an extremely attractive and well made Southern Pistol.  This gun was obviously built to conform to the code duello.  Click on image for detail photos!   P.O.R.  SOLD!!

This is a wonderfully made English flintlock dueling pistol.  It is agent marked on the lock "V. Libeau."  The barrel is marked London, is in approximately 60 caliber, 8 1/2 inches in length with one gold and one platinum line at the patent breech.  This gun probably dates to 1825 to 1830 and has been converted to percussion with the use if a drum and nipple.  The gun is basically in a very smooth, uncleaned, attic condition with exceptionally nice wood.  The lock function is perfect and it has a set trigger.  While dueling pistol may be a good way to describe it, the fact that it was converted to percussion would indicate to me that it continued in use past the flintlock era as a belt pistol. 

Who V. Libeau was is a little bit confusing.  There was a Valentine Libeau in Cincinnati, OH. during the 1825 to 1829 period.  There was also a V.G.W. Libeau in New Orleans from 1832 to 1847.  I strongly suspect they are the same man.  This gun is a typical English made gun, during the 1820-1830 time frame.  The London mark on top of the barrel would have been a sign of quality and the dealer mark on the lock would have announced who sold it.  This gun could have easily been imported and sold by Libeau while he was in Cincinnati or New Orleans.  In any case, it is an English made pistol with an American agent marking which had a presence somewhere along the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers at a time when our country was beginning to expand in earnest.  It is in very nice condition and no doubt quite historic.  Click on image for detail photos!    $1,750.00

ADDITIONAL INFO:  I have continued to study the origins of this gun and am now convinced it is an early product sold by Libeau in New Orleans.  He started his operation in New Orleans around 1832, which is just about the exact date this gun was made.  First, there are no examples of guns sold and agent marked by Libeau with Cincinnati, Ohio markings on the barrel.  No guns that I know of have ever turned up that would indicate they were sold by Libeau in Cincinnati.  However, there are any number of guns marked exactly like this one V. LIBEAU on the lock plate and New Orleans on the barrel.  The lock plate markings on the Libeau pistols, agent marked in New Orleans, are very consistent with this one.  Further, the New Orleans marked guns have an alfa/numeric number stamped on the bottom of the barrel in addition to a serial number.  This gun has the exact same markings.  I don't think there is any doubt that this is an early New Orleans gun, agent marked and sold by Libeau.

This is a very early Atlanta production Spiller & Burr.  It is quite likely this gun was in the first batch of second model guns that were submitted to ordnance inspection.  Only seven of the first forty or fifty guns passed inspection.  The rest had to be returned to be repaired or refitted in some manner.  Knowing this, I have examined this gun in detail looking for signs of this retrofit process.  The basic gun has matching serial numbers.  The number 77 is found on the bottom of the barrel, the loading lever, the cylinder, the trigger guard and on the frame beneath the trigger guard.  The barrel was initially stamped 73 but the three was over stamped with the 7.  The top of the barrel bears the Spiller & Burr mark.  The marking is very light and my eyes are so dim today, I have to use a magnifying glass to see it but it is in fact there.  We can't get a good image of it so look closely.  The brass has a nice light patination and does not appear to be polished.  The barrel, lever and cylinder are smooth with nice patination and no disfiguring pitting.  The bore has rusted but still has very distinct lands and grooves.  The action is nice.  There is some wear on the hammer sear and trigger.  However, it cocks, rotates and locks up very nicely.  There is a small crack in the loading lever below the latch.  It has not moved, is not loose and the latch works fine.

The cylinder is made of steel, not wrought iron.  The wrought iron cylinders are the ones that have the twist.  This cylinder does not have twist as it was not necessary.  Spiller had a sizeable quantity of good, solid steel.  Probably produced by Firth & Sons in England when production began.  He retained enough steel to make all the barrels but sold off the rest with a high profit at the very beginning of production.  This cylinder is from that original stock of steel and should not have twist.  Burton chaffed at this sale and later bought Firth & Sons steel on his trip to England to replace it.  The interim production relied on wrought iron cylinders with twist.  Later, steel cylinders were re-introduced to the Macon production when his Firth & Sons purchase was received.

The gun is early Atlanta production and it does have a few anomalies which are probably the result of poor workmanship being rejected and the guns being reworked to pass inspection.  While the loading lever is clearly numbered, the cylinder pin it is attached to bears no serial number.  It is absolutely original Spiller & Burr production.  The most interesting anomaly is the fact that the grip frame has two pins to stabilize the grips instead of one.  Standard production placed one pin in the grip frame at the heel of the grip.  This gun has a pin at the toe of the grip underneath the mainspring as well as the heel.  It is pretty obvious that the workmen initially placed the pin at the toe of the grip.  This does not stabilize the grip.  The grip will rotate backwards on the frame.  Somebody had to take the gun back and place the pin at the heel of the grip and the grips are then locked in perfectly.  Another odd characteristic of this gun is that there are three plugged holes on the bottom of the grip frame.  They measure about 1/8 of an inch in diameter and are not obvious at first glance.  Somebody, at some time, attached a shoulder stock to this gun. This is not unprecedented, there are at least one or two of these guns that have turned up with shoulder stocks and the attachment point is always the butt of the grip frame.  Whether this is some experiment at the factory or was done at a later time, I don't know.  If it was done after the gun left the factory, I'm not sure I understand why the holes would have been plugged. 

In summary, this is a solid, honest, strong very good condition, early production Spiller & Burr, which does demonstrate some of the difficulties that the company encountered in getting it's guns to pass inspection.  I think it may be the only two digit Spiller & Burr I have ever owned.  P.O.R. Click on image for detail photos!  SOLD!!