This Smith & Wesson Model 1 1/2 is an engraved presentation piece, serial number 89676, made between about 1868 and 1875 and chambered in .32 Rimfire Long with a 3.5-inch barrel. The seller describes it as excellent, with nearly all of the original nickel remaining and the cylinder keeping about 75 percent of its original gold finish. The two-piece pearl grips are excellent. The bottom of the frame is inscribed H. C. Dickinson / Pittsburgh, for Henry Dickinson, a Pittsburgh businessman in the industrial scale trade, and the revolver sits in a period pipe-style case.

Nothing about this gun is meant for the range. It is a gentleman's pocket revolver with New York-style engraving, an owner's inscription and its period casing, and that combination is what will draw a New Jersey collector of nineteenth-century Smith & Wessons. Condition is as reported above; the finish percentages and grip grade are the seller's figures.

Key features

• .32 Rimfire Long, 3.5-inch barrel
• Circa 1868-1875, serial 89676
• Near-full original nickel, 75 percent cylinder gold
• Two-piece pearl grips
• Inscribed H. C. Dickinson / Pittsburgh, pipe-style case

Even as an antique it is handled like any handgun here and ships to a New Jersey FFL dealer for transfer and pickup.