Howard Dove Engraved Cased Pair of Colt Sheriff's Model Revolvers

Two revolvers, one engraver, and a theme that runs from grip to muzzle. Both wear the hand of Colt master engraver Howard Dove, and they were built to be read as a matched statement on American liberty and justice. That alone puts this pair in rare company.

The Sheriff's Model carries .357 Magnum across its barrel in flush gold lettering. Look at the recoil shield and you find a gold eagle over a striped shield, ringed by stars, with the motto worked into the gold above it. The New Frontier Sheriff Model is chambered in .38 Special and answers with a different program. A judge's gavel sits on the loading gate, and blindfolded Lady Justice holds her scales across the recoil shield. The Liberty Bell appears in gold on the Magnum's loading gate. It's a deliberate split, one gun for freedom, one for justice, and Dove tied both together with type B American scroll cut deep into a royal blue field.

The color is what stops you. Both revolvers carry a deep royal blue with fire blued screws, triggers, and cylinder pins that shift toward peacock under the light. Gold scroll inlay flows along the barrels, frames, and cylinders, framed by gold line borders. The checkered ivory grips wear small gold scroll panels at the butt. Worth noting: the New Frontier wears a flat top frame with an adjustable rear sight, while the Sheriff's Model keeps the classic fixed groove.

The set lives in a double ebony presentation case lined in green, fitted with ivory handled cleaning tools, an oiler, the original keys, and Colt factory documentation. Both pieces letter to Universal Firearms and were delivered in 1987. They remain near mint, with the blue and gold sharp and the engraving crisp. For a Colt collector chasing Dove's best work, a themed pair like this rarely surfaces together.