D.W. Harris Engraved Colt Single Action Army "Ghost Rider"

The backstrap is what gets you first. Three gold-inlaid musical notes run down it in a vertical line, spelling out GHOST RIDER, and a final golden note caps the bottom edge. It's a personal touch that tells you this gun was built around an idea, not just dressed up for show. The man who cut it was D.W. Harris, who trained under Weldon Bledsoe, himself a student of Cole Agee. That's the lineage behind the Cattle Brand style, and you can see the schooling in the tight scrollwork wrapping nearly every surface here.

The coverage runs close to 75 percent of the steel, flowing scroll set against a fine punch-dot background that pulls light into the recesses. Frame, barrel, cylinder, ejector housing, trigger guard, and grip straps all carry the cut. Gold-inlaid bands ring the rear of the cylinder and the muzzle end of the barrel, narrow lines of bright color against deep black. And that finish deserves a word. The revolver was refinished at the time of engraving in a high-polish blue that reads almost black under good light, with only a minor mark near the muzzle end of the ejector rod housing.

This is a second generation gun built in 1970, chambered in .45 Colt, wearing the classic 4¾-inch barrel with a blade front sight. The barrel roll mark reads COLT SINGLE ACTION ARMY .45, and the underside carries the Hartford address. The grips are ivory, full of warm color, showing natural age lines that suit the piece rather than detract from it.

It comes with its original wood-grain Colt box, the Single Action Army instruction manual, the authorized service station listing, and the factory letter from Colt Industries. For a collector who wants a working canvas of American engraving tradition with a name and a theme behind it, this one stands on its own.