Dance Revolver

[capnlee]

Greetings folks...I am new to the forum. I am looking for some information for a friend of mine and came accross this site. She has a Dance Revolver that has been in her family since the Civil War. She is trying to find the value of the gun, and has talked to some collectors and appraisers, but they just keep asking how much she would take for it. I don't think she is too interested in selling, she just wants to know what it is worth. It is a .44 cal. with a 7 sided barrell. Oddly enough, it has 4 diamonds stamped in the places the serial number should be. A friend of mine, who worked as a gunsmith for years said that is a mystery to him as all the literature he has says there should be serial numbers. Here are a some pics. Any info would be much appreciated.

 

[Ron James]

If it is authentic ( and not a 1851 Colt modified to look like a Dance )., in good to fair antique condition, I don't think 20 to 40 thousand would be out of the question. One concern, the screw on the loading rod pivot looks like a modern screw. The 4 diamonds, don't know, the Dance revolvers were serial numbered. To answer that would take a real expert, I'm really out of my leauge here.

 

[Jim Watson]

A SEVEN sided barrel?
Most Dance Brothers revolvers had round barrels, a few of the last had octagonal barrels and are worth even more.

Lack of a serial number is very troubling. Flayderman says they were numbered throughout and that the only marking. There have been modern replicas made and fakes built out of Colts are known.

There is a book on the company, 'Dance & Brothers, Texas Gunmakers of the Confederacy' that would be a worthwhile investment considering that the last of the guns to change hands, out of the 80 surviving from less than 500 made, serial no 222 went for $77,000.
http://www.ajarmsbooksellers.com/cgi-bin/ajarms/13526.html?id=3e7B46wo

I don't know if you or she could get in touch with the author but it would sure be worth a try.

 

[capnlee]

I just wanted to bump this post up to see if someone might see it that has more info. It turns out that the diamonds in place of serial numbers were for private buyers, where all the military issued pistols had serial numbers. If they were made for private buyers that had hearts, spades, diamonds or clubs.

 

[bprevolver]

The four diamonds is a legitimate serial number substitution. According to Gary Wiggens' book these were used in place of numbers on several .44cal., octagon barrel Dance revolvers. They were from Andersonville production, mostly to private buyers. They would even use the buyers initials as a serial number.

From the pictures this is a very unique revolver. If it is .44cal. it would be varily easy to determine it's originality simply by measuring its size. The Dance .44cal. is a "bastard" size between the .36cal. 1851 Navy and the
1851 3rd Model Dragoon. Would be extremely hard to produce a fake.

Sales that I am aware of have all been above $75,000.

 

[madcratebuilder]

With documentation of the revolver being in the same family since the civil war. The private sale serial number, or lack of serial number, makes this a rare among rare revolvers. I would say it a six digit price.

 

[Jim K]

FWIW, I will stick out ye olde neck and say the gun is absolutely authentic and $100k would be very possible, perhaps more if anyone can dig up old documentation on its original owner and how it came into the family. At a minimum, the oldest family member should make a notarized statement as to his/her memories of the gun's family connection and anything else he/she can recall about it. (Capn lee miscounted; the barrel appears to be the standard octagon.)

For many years, there was speculation about why the Dance revolvers had the recoil shield "milled off." Many and wonderful were the speculations and guesses, usually that it was done to prevent chain firing. Until someone, maybe Bill Edwards, found that there was a supply of heavy boiler plate available to the Dances; they didn't forge the frames, they simply hacksawed them out of flat plate. The frame bosses were not "milled off" because they had never been there. In fact, one way to detect a fake is the presence of milling or grinding marks in those areas. (In a later era, Webley also made revolver frames out of flat stock and dovetailed them to take a flat plate for a recoil shield. So the Dances were ahead of their time in production methods, they just never took things that one step further.)

Jim