Colt Single Action Army George B. Spring Gold Inlaid

This is the gun George Spring called Spring 1, his own number one engraved Colt, and the paperwork that comes with it tells the whole story. Spring bought the Single Action Army from Colt in the white in 1999, took it back to his home studio, and covered it in 24-karat gold inlaid scrollwork that runs from muzzle to backstrap. When it was finished, he set it on the Colt factory table at the 1999 Colt Collectors Association Show in San Francisco, where Dr. Joseph Murphy bought it. The handwritten note Spring sent along even hoped to see it printed in volume two of Murphy's Fine Colts.

The work itself is the reason to stop. Intertwined gold scroll wraps nearly the full length of the 7.5 inch barrel and covers every flute of the non-fluted cylinder in continuous motion. The frame carries raised gold running leaf borders along both sides of the recoil shield, with gold scroll laid over steel-cut background work on the frame and hammer. Gold runs along the top and bottom of the backstrap and around the bow of the trigger guard. Even the screw heads are engraved in a rosette pattern, finished gold to match.

All of it sits against deep Colt Royal Blue, the high-polish finish that makes the gold lift off the surface and the cut scroll settle into shadow. The grip is one-piece smooth Mother of Pearl, its soft cream and gray figure playing against the blue and gold without competing for attention.

The documentation is what anchors it. You get the Colt factory letter confirming the white shipment to Spring, his signed engraver's letter detailing finish and exhibition history, and period correspondence between Spring and Murphy. For a collector chasing modern Colt engraving at its source, a named first piece with this paper trail does not come around often.