Chapter 1.6 – Currently Recognized Uberti Percussion Revolver Miniatures

Colt had the cylinders of his percussion revolvers engraved with famous scenes created by American engraver and inventor Waterman Lily Ormsby (*September 9, 1809 - † November 1, 1883). Ormsby had invented a pantographic engraving machine called grammagraph to produce "roll-die" engraving on metal. This machine automated an existing engraving technique that varied spaces between parallel contour lines to give the impression of depth to a print¹⁾.

You will be amazed how well Uberti's miniature gun artists replicated this roll-engraving of these cylinder scenes. 

Despite his later triumphs, Samuel Colt's (*July 19, 1814 – † Jan. 10, 1862) early efforts in the gun business as an inventor and entrepreneur were not successful. His Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, established along with other investors in 1836 to manufacture and market his repeating rifles and revolvers failed in 1840. Colt was out of business. Forever, he may have thought.

But meanwhile in Texas his revolving pistols were sowing the seeds of a legend named Colt²⁾.

Read more of this story in the following chapters!

The Uberti team of miniature gun artist did not stop at the Colt percussion revolver models, however. They extended the line of miniatures by a few Confederate States (CS) percussion revolvers. Miniatures surfaced share more or less the distinct Colt Navy design features. The contemporary shortcuts should be noted, however. Back in the days they served to facilitate production operations i.e. round instead of octagon barrels, or to cut down on rare raw materials on short supply like using bronze/brass for the manufacture of frames instead of iron or steel. Like the original CS revolvers their miniatures are fitted with cylinders without engraving. Known today and members of the Hunzinger Collection are plain Jane variants of the 1860 Schneider & Glassick, 1862 Dance & Brothers and 1862 Griswold & Gunnison revolvers.

The gun collectors have noted the creation of "Guns That Never Were" (GTNW) aka fantasy guns among the Uberti replicas as well as miniatures. In our opinion the making of these fantasy guns should be considered as a move to complement or even to support Uberti's strategy of growing the respective full size replica assortment. Because a) the factory also offered and still offers a fair number of such fantasy replicas of both the percussion and the cartridge variety, and b) the replicas always represented the bread and butter business of Uberti. 

For further details regarding these GTNWs scroll down to of the chapters 1.6.4 - Currently Recognized Miniatures of Uberti Colt 1861 Navy Variants, 1.6.5 - Currently Recognized Miniatures of Uberti Confederate States (CS) Percussion Revolvers and 1.9.1 - Thoughts About Uberti Miniatures.

Please note that we strive to present pictures comparing miniature models – dubbed "son" in their subtitles - to their replicas – dubbed "father" - respectively. This shall help to bring the size of the miniatures into some perspective to the real thing. Wherever possible we like to provide such comparative pictures using Uberti made replicas as the "fathers". But sometimes they are just not available. In such instances re-issues or replicas of other makers are used, sometimes originals, too.