Description from HiBid
Lehigh County Sheriff Office No. 1 Detective Special, .38 spl, SN: 429875, revolver, 2" brl, double action, very good plus condition. The revolver comes with a Colt letter, original box and paperwork. Also included is a period leather pocket carry holster. The letter states it was Factory Order #16268 with 1 gun in the shipment and that it was shipped on May 18th, 1936. Factory inscribed on the butt "L.C.S.O. No. 1" and shipped to Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Comm. Office Allentown, Pennsylvania. Blue finish with 2" barrel and the stock type not listed. The grip panels are fully checkered walnut each with an inletted silvertone rampant Colt medallion. The trigger is checkered as is the hammer spur and the cylinder release. The sights are fixed and the muzzle has a standard crown. The bore appears like factory with the bluing showing just the slightest of handling on some edges from being placed in the holster but it doesn't appear that it was used much at all as the presence of a dragline is almost unnoticeable. The revolver was most likely carried by Sheriff Oliver H. Peter who was appointed to the office on April 10, 1934 and then subsequently ran for the office and was re-elected being only the second man in Lehigh County history to be elected to the office of sheriff twice with his retirement from the office in 1947. It is believed that the revolver was purchased in part to assist Sheriff Peter with his vastly growing duty of property sheriff sales during the height of The Great Depression in the Valley. Included are newspaper articles in which it states that the net earnings of his office turned over to the County Treasurer in 1934 was $20,167.45 with the following years climbing steadily till the surpassed $30,000 a year and then fell with the ending of the Great Depression and the start of World War Two. This is a very nice example of a Colt Detective Special with Great Depression and Lehigh County provenance.
30-4-9 Selling subject to reserve.
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