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Percussion revolver, Colt "Navy" model. The butt has beencarved in a 'rauponga' pattern, the butt strap is engraved with the words "Taranaki Government Prize No. 7." Calibre .36.
The 'Taranaki Herald' newspaper of 25 November 1865 reported that the Provincial Government had given 15 revolvers as prizes for marksmanship - 10 for the best shots with rifles and 5 for revolver shooting. "Prize No. 7" was won by Corporal W. Henley of the Taranaki Military Settlers.
This extract originally appeared in Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024) on page 117.
This extract was authored by Michael Fitzgerald.
On 26 November 1862, a clerk at the London office of Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company wrote out an invoice to the ‘Taranaki Government’ for payment of ‘15 Colt Army & Navy Revolvers’, with accessories and 3000 cartridges. Included in the total of £93 and six shillings was a charge of £3 for ‘Engraving 15 Pistols’.1 The engraving was for the words ‘Taranaki Government Prize [Nos. 1–15]’ in elegant script on the backstrap of each revolver.
The 15 revolvers (in addition to 105 other Colts) were purchased as prizes for shooting matches by members of the Taranaki Militia Volunteers and Military Settlers. The competition was finally announced in the Taranaki Herald three years later: ‘the New Plymouth Provincial Council, having voted 15 Revolvers to be fired for . . . they will be competed for by the Militia and Volunteers at the Militia Rifle Range, weather and the state of the Province permitting’.2 It may have been some months later that the actual competition took place, as the results were not published until late November.3
In 1989, military firearms historian Haydon Hughes suggested that the revolver in Te Papa’s collection was won for rifle shooting by Corporal W Henley of the Taranaki Military Settlers.4 Remarkably, the wooden handgrip of this revolver has been finely carved in a rauponga pattern by a skilled Māori artist. The carving appears to have been carried out not long after the competition, and, although the identity of the carver remains unknown, there must be an intriguing story associated with the work. Did Henley commission it from a carver he knew, or was there some other relationship or reason for the carving?
1 Hayden Hughes, ‘The Taranaki Provincial Government prize Colts’, New Zealand Antique Arms Gazette, September 1989.
2 ‘Provincial Government Prizes’, Taranaki Herald, 6 May 1865, p. 2.
3 Taranaki Herald, 25 November 1865, p. 3.
4 Hughes, ‘Taranaki Provincial Government prize Colts’.