In 1875 Remington came out with a single-action “army” revolver in an attempt to compete with Colt’s iconic SAA. Remington was already two years late to the party, though, and making inroads with the government proved to be a difficult task. While there is evidence that a few hundred were sold to the interior ministry to be used by the “Indian Police”, no large government contracts are known to have existed. Then there is the elusive, and much-discussed “Egyptian Contract”: the Egyptian government, an independent Khedivate of the Ottoman Empire led by Mohamed Ismail Pasha had been a customer of Remington’s for some time. His father Tewfik was educated in Europe, and both Tewfik and Ismail had grand plans to modernize the Egyptian government and military. Up until that time, the Egyptians had been using surplus French small arms from the Napoleonic era, as well as their own manufactured muskets and pistols. Muhamad Ali, father of Tewfik, was the de facto ruler of the Khedivate before his son, and had begun the expansion of his reign into parts west, east, and south of Egypt. This required an increased number of personnel and equipment; more than the armories in Cairo could handle. Part of the process was equipping his soldiers with modern weapons procured from the best European and American suppliers. The Khedivate entered into several contracts with Remington to purchase their rolling block rifles. Remington would sell 60,000 of the rifles in the first contract, with subsequent deliveries of more than 200,000 rifles, musketoons and carbines between 1869 and 1880. Remington was very keen on this sort of business as they, along with most American arms manufacturers, were reeling from the loss of orders after the civil war. Smith and Wesson had their Russian contracts for the top-break revolver to keep them afloat, while Remington pursued the French and Egyptians. In fact, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Remington was so overwhelmed with French requests for the rolling block rifles that they had to refuse Ismail’s orders for a short while. This may have strained the relationship between Remington and Ismail, resulting in a substantial amount of unpaid bills from Egypt. When the order for 10,000 Remington 1875 Single Action Army revolvers came in, Samuel Remington was naturally sceptical. Should he reject the order because of the outstanding debt, or try to appease the Pasha in order to keep the payments coming? Dan Wesson at S&W had run into a similar problem with the Czar of Russia: Nicholas was behind in his payment on the contract for S&W revolvers but was keen to place further orders before the previous had been paid. It may be noteworthy that in those days payments between foreign governments and American manufacturers were usually made in gold, not a paper currency. Dan Wesson had to weigh his options: insist on payment, or appease the customer to keep the relationship amicable, and the gold coming in? Wesson decided on the latter, and would end up selling a further 70,000 revolvers to Imperial Russia.
Samuel Remington, in 1882, had to decide between collecting payment from Ismail, or continue to supply weapons to the Egyptian Khedivate. The order for 10,000 revolvers was likely started, probably stalled and delayed for the aforementioned reason, but there is little evidence that these were ever delivered in their entirety. Some specimens exist with inspection marks and stampings which put them into the hands of the Egyptian military, however not nearly enough of them have surfaced to suggest that this number of contract revolvers was ever delivered to Egypt. Furthermore, most of these “Egyptian Contract” revolvers have surfaced in the US since then, suggesting that they never left the continent in the first place. Noted Remington collector Leon Wier had extensive correspondence with Cairo museum authorities, and no photographs of Egyptian M1875 Remington revolvers could be found. This would lead one to believe that the “Egyptian Contract” revolvers are few and far between. The model of 1875 was available in 44 Remington and 44 Winchester calibers, although the true “Egyptian” specimens are all of 44 Remington caliber. Remington did not only sell the Egyptians rolling block rifles and revolvers, they also sold them the machinery and know-how to build factories for producing parts and ammunition for all these. By 1882, when Britain invaded the Khedivate there were four armouries and munitions factories built by Remington in operation in Alexandria, Cairo, Suez and Khartoum. The capital had the largest of these, and could turn out 60,000 rounds of ammunition per day, employing over 2000 men working 24 hours a day.
Remington M1875 SAA. One of the few which was marked for export to Egypt. It may never have left America, though.
Thaddeus Mott Pasha, chief of staff to Ismail until 1871. Mott was from New York, but spoke fluent Turkish - which helped tremendously to ingratiate himself with the viceroy.
Samuel Remington, in 1882, had to decide between collecting payment from Ismail, or continue to supply weapons to the Egyptian Khedivate. The order for 10,000 revolvers was likely started, probably stalled and delayed for the aforementioned reason, but there is little evidence that these were ever delivered in their entirety. Some specimens exist with inspection marks and stampings which put them into the hands of the Egyptian military, however not nearly enough of them have surfaced to suggest that this number of contract revolvers was ever delivered to Egypt. Furthermore, most of these “Egyptian Contract” revolvers have surfaced in the US since then, suggesting that they never left the continent in the first place. Noted Remington collector Leon Wier had extensive correspondence with Cairo museum authorities, and no photographs of Egyptian M1875 Remington revolvers could be found. This would lead one to believe that the “Egyptian Contract” revolvers are few and far between. The model of 1875 was available in 44 Remington and 44 Winchester calibers, although the true “Egyptian” specimens are all of 44 Remington caliber. Remington did not only sell the Egyptians rolling block rifles and revolvers, they also sold them the machinery and know-how to build factories for producing parts and ammunition for all these. By 1882, when Britain invaded the Khedivate there were four armouries and munitions factories built by Remington in operation in Alexandria, Cairo, Suez and Khartoum. The capital had the largest of these, and could turn out 60,000 rounds of ammunition per day, employing over 2000 men working 24 hours a day.
Remington M1875 SAA. One of the few which was marked for export to Egypt. It may never have left America, though.
Thaddeus Mott Pasha, chief of staff to Ismail until 1871. Mott was from New York, but spoke fluent Turkish - which helped tremendously to ingratiate himself with the viceroy.
