Thank you, yes agreed. They were probably often sourcing from non-working parts to cobble pieces together because that was what was available. I am however fascinated with pistols pieced together and re-worked to make a functional gun with no intent to deceive. Let me posit a slightly different later example where we can safely trace the history. I have a Colt 1862 Police Conversion and an 1860 Navy Conversion with a Colt letter, so at least there is provenance on that one. The 1860 is in poor condition with no remaining finish but all matching numbers. It's listed as an armory conversion in the late 97,000 range. Of course the Colt archivists stated the usual regarding the missing fire records but one thing always stuck out to me. After stating that most of these Colts were decommissioned they went to the American Southwest. But mine has an added backstrap and a different hand-made ejector rod and I was told they were added later in a "frontier gunsmithing" attempt to keep the weapon going. My 1860 is charitably a "well patinated" Colt but it is functional and can still fire light BP .38 loads for demonstration purposes. It's not worth a lot, considering how common they were, but I find the history interesting. So...I choose to believe that with all of the British, Dutch, French, German etcetera dragoons and otherwise, human nature and necessity led people to piece them together to keep them going. While they may not be worth anything at auction, those pistols may have led very interesting lives. One of the things I love about this forum is the level of expertise and experience the members like yourself bring to the table. There are a myriad of variables to consider of course but I am intrigued with the sleuthing involved with aesthetics, provenance, and period gunsmithing. I am but a humble student and I defer to the experts but I find the real or fake discussions superb reading. I feel I learn something new every day. --Dr. Paul