The Birth of the Reproduction Percussion Revolver Industry and Navy Arms

The Colt M1851 Navy revolver that Bill Edwards assembled form those same parts has a cylinder that is numbered 83 and has 100% of the Ormsby roll engraved naval battle scene remaining. All six safety pins and nipples remain virtually untouched. Additionally, the cylinder has a faint index line and carries military inspector marks K and J on opposing shoulders and L on the face between two chambers near the cylinder pin hole. The small round trigger guard and the backstrap are numbered 82 - with the backstrap numeral 2 being slightly damaged. The loading lever is numbered 1715. The only detraction to this revolver is the fact that the hammer will not lock up in the final notch. This revolver has become known as #82 from the serial number on the trigger guard and backstrap.

An old theory at one time known as the "1 of 100 Test Gun" theory had these Stokes Kirk assembled revolvers being those that Colt had assembled to prove to the Navy that all the parts were interchangeable, but Nathan Swayze has seemingly disproved this theory and the examples of similar W. Stokes Kirk "Low Number Mismatch" Colt 1851 Navy revolvers can be found in the following firearms reference books:

'51 Colt Navies by Nathan L. Swayze• Page 93, Plata 52.
Book of Colt Firearms by Robert Q. Sutherland & R. L. Wilson. page 131, Plate D

How It All Began

It was nearly a decade later, that this #82 "spare parts revolver" gave Edwards an idea. With the Centennial of the Civil War coming up in 1961, Edwards envisioned having replica '51 Navy Revolvers made in Europe for sale in the U.S. The rest is history!

In the late 1950’s Bill Edwards headed up the Guns Magazine tour of the gunmakers of Europe. They visited dealers and manufacturers in England, Belgium, France and finally Italy. On that "Gun-Nuts Tour of Europe" in the late 1950's, Edwards pitched the idea to every firearms manufacturer they visited in Europe of putting the '51 Navy Revolver back into production. Every manufacturer Edwards proposed the idea to thought Edwards was either joking or he was crazy...after all, they thought....people wouldn't buy percussion revolvers when more modern design cartridge revolvers were available on the market.

Val Forgett was also on that tour with Edwards and as a businessman, thought Edwards proposal of the manufacture and sale of percussion revolvers was actually a good idea. As early as 1957, Forgett was employed as a sales representative for his father’s sheet metal firm, Service Welding Co., in Ridgefield, New Jersey but operated his gun business, Service Armament located in Bogata, New Jersey part-time. When the "Gun Nuts Tour of Europe" got to Brescia, Italy, they toured the Beretta factory. A Beretta employee, by the name of Louie Amadi, was assigned to guide the Americans through the Beretta plant.

Mr. Amadi was selected for that assignment because he spoke excellent English. Originally from Venice, Mr. Amadi had graduated from an Italian university with a mechanical engineering degree. Fresh out of college, he had gone to work for an Italian typewriter company that had a typewriter manufacturing plant in Australia. Mr. Amadi lived and worked in Australia for over a year and consequently became very fluent in English.

It was while guiding the Americans though the Beretta factory that Louie Amadi met Bill Edwards and Val Forgett. It was in a private meeting after the tour was over that Edwards pitched the idea to Mr. Amadi of having replicas of the '51 Navy Revolver manufactured in Brescia. Mr. Amadi loved the idea and agreed to help get the '51 Navy Revolver started in production.

The initial agreement was that Mr. Amadi would act as the agent for Mr. Forgett to get replica '51 Navy revolvers manufactured in Brescia, Italy. For every revolver that Mr. Amadi would ship to Val Forgett in the U.S., Mr. Amadi would receive a $1.00 commission.

After the Guns Magazine tour left Brescia, that original spare parts '51 Navy Revolver that Bill Edwards had assembled was literally smuggled into Italy by a U.S. Army officer and delivered to Louie Amadi to serve as the model to copy. Mr. Amadi found a small company in Brescia that was willing to tool up to produce the replica revolver and another stage in history is set.

Initially, Bill Edwards had secured an original Colt 1851 Navy revolver from a collector in France that was secretly delivered to an arms dealer in England to be sent to Brescia to use as the pattern for the reproductions, But due to existing gun laws in Italy at the time, the revolver could not be imported into Italy. So Bill Edwards had his model pistol #82 taken into Italy via Germany by a military major stationed in Italy and it was delivered to Gregorelli to begin the manufacture of the prototypes of the M1851 Colt Navy reproductions.

To make a long story short, Val Forgett, upon returning to the States, founded Navy Arms as a subsidiary of Service Armament to distribute those replica '51 Navy Revolvers in the U.S. and the replica industry was born and became a very large part of the U.S. and Italian gun industry. But the unknown "Hero" of the replica arms story is Louie Amadi, an Italian that had the foresight to become a co-founder of the replica firearms industry. Without Mr. Amadi's efforts, the replica arms industry would have never gotten off the ground.

There is an article in the March 1958 issue of Guns Magazine about that tour on Page 35 of that issue. Note on the first page of the article is a historic picture of Louie Amadi and Bill Edwards! You can download it here:

https://gunsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/G0358.pdf

In the history of Navy Arms, that small company in Brescia that Louie Amadi found that was willing to tool up to produce those first replica revolvers was known as Gregorelli and Uberti. The revolvers are stamped with “GU” that stands for Gregorelli and Uberti. Gregorelli made the steel parts and Uberti assembled the revolvers. When Aldo Uberti first started into the replica manufacturing business, he did not have a manufacturers license at the time so he had to partner with Gregorelli who was licensed to manufacture.

The “GU” marked Gregorelli & Uberti replicas have become very collectable due to their being among the very first replicas to be made, starting in 1959, and to their scarcity, as the production was still handmade in those days. On the 1851 Navy, the first revolver to be marketed, the “GU” will be found extending into the 5000 serial number range. The highest number in the Jim Davis collection was 5080. The “GU” can also be found on the first Griswold & Gunnison, Leech & Rigdon, Remington New Model Army and New Model Navy.

On the Griswold & Gunnison and Leech & Rigdon the “GU” appears on the right side of the barrel flat the same as on the 1851 Navy. NAVY ARMS is on top of the barrel and on left side of frame. Our Leech & Rigdon #6546 does not have the NAVY ARMS on the left side of the frame but only on the top of the barrel.

On the Remington New Model revolvers, the “GU” is located on the bottom of the barrel under the loading lever. These revolvers will also have the Navy Arms Bogota, NJ address. The Bogata, NJ address can be found on the revolvers made through 1959 with the transition to the Navy Arms Ridgefield, NJ address coming sometime after January of 1960.

Dennis Russell, author of “Percussion Colt Revolvers, The Second Generation Collector’s Handbook” obtained first hand information when he was able to go through some of Navy Arms original records that Navy Arms had available extra barrels in the early 1960's. Actually, Gregorelli & Uberti was somewhat of a separate company in the beginning because Gregorelli had the manufacturer's license and Uberti did not. They split in about 1962-63 and Uberti formed his own company when he received a manufacturer’s license. The Leech & Rigdon in the set Dr, Jim Davis got from Joe Salter has a date code for 1965 and a 6000 range serial number, way past the split up of Gregorelli & Uberti. According to records whatever parts that were left over from the original replicas were used on Uberti’s guns. From all the revolvers seen only one continuous string of serial numbers was used for all their model guns rather than a separate serial number range for each model. This can also be observed in the sixteen prototypes 1851 Navy and Griswold & Gunnison that were produced.

I posted an article by Dennis Russell to the Group Files of the Cap & Ball Revolvers, Pistols & Rifles Facebook Group and to this blog that might be of interest. It is entitled, “The Gun That Started It All”. It relates the history of the Colt 1851 Navy revolver with Serial #82, from William Edwards assembling the gun at the Colt factory to it being smuggled into Italy for Gregorelli & Uberti to make the prototypes. Dennis Russell now owns this #82 revolver and Dr. Jim Davis had the Prototype number 1 in his collection. that revolver is now in the collection of Chad Fisher.
In his research Dr. Jim Davis added Gregorelli & Uberti as a separate company that evolved into Uberti. This means the “GU” initialed and “Gregorelli & Uberti” marked revolvers are truly the first mass produced replica revolvers with Centennial Arms made in Belgium coming in a very close second (matter of months), both of these being the results of William B. Edwards efforts. Leonard Allen with the Replica Arms Co. El Paso, TX being the third out of the gate in 1962-63 with the 1847 Walker and other big frame revolvers as well as the Baby Dragoons and Pocket Model .31cal. revolvers. Interestingly, EIG is the first accurate replica of a Schneider & Glassick brass frame 1851 Navy type. This appeared in 1963-64. These had the GB logo on the butt which is still a mystery to me.

Even though I have tried to give some type of history of the beginnings of the reproduction revolver market, I still find new and interesting information around every corner my research takes me. All I can say at this point is, “The more I learn the less I know”.

~ compiled from the notes of Dr. James H Davis, Bill Edwards, and Roy L. Oak.