From the Hudson River to Val Trompia: the story behind the birth of the historic replicas market
From a castle on the Hudson River in New York State comes the fascinating story that in 1957 gave rise to the modern industry of replicas of historical black powder fireams, all Made in Italy, in Val Trompia.
From the Hudson River to Val Trompia: the story behind the birth of historic replicas market in the USA
For almost seventy years, the global sporting weapons industry linked to replicas of historical weapons has counted many tens of thousands of enthusiasts all over the world, who know well that the main production center from which these replicas are created and exported all over the world is in the Brescia area, in Val Trompia.
Yet, even today, few people know why the modern global industry of replicas of historical weapons - almost exclusively models of historical American weapons - was born in Italy, in Val Trompia.
Val Forgett, the Navy Arms Company and Aldo Uberti
The model from which the entire modern industry of replicas of historical weapons produced in Italy was born: a Colt Navy 1851 in the Uberti private collection
Only true enthusiasts know the name Valmore Joseph Forgett Jr., born in 1930 and passed away in 2002, more commonly known as Val Forgett II.
A mechanical engineer, a major American trader of military surplus, and a firearms importer and manufacturer, he is known as the "father of the replica firearms industry" for founding the Navy Arms Company in 1956 and revolutionizing—in effect, creating—the production of reproductions of historic firearms. Thanks to him, Italian companies like Uberti and its American West weapons are still at the forefront of this story today.
Some testimonies, even very recent ones, take us back in time, on a journey from New Jersey to Val Trompia, passing by a picturesque (and objectively dangerous) castle built on the small island of Pollepel in the Hudson River, just above West Point, about 60 miles north of New York City.
In 1957, Val Forgett II wasn't yet known as "the father of the historical replica industry." His company—Navy Arms Co., a pioneer in importing replicas of historic American black-powder weapons—had just been founded in Bogota, New Jersey, and Forgett was a recent graduate of Clemson University in South Carolina with a degree in mechanical engineering.
More importantly, Forgett was relatively fresh out of the military: during the Korean War, he had served at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, under the command of Colonel George B. Jarrett, now recognized as one of the greatest munitions and explosives experts in the history of the U.S. Army.
Passionate about history, particularly the American Civil War period, Forgett was particularly interested in bringing to the US market a replica of the Colt 1851 Navy .36 caliber muzzle-loading revolver, for which he had prepared a project. However, since the necessary production capacity was not available on site, in the late 1950s Forgett set out on a tour of Europe, looking for gunsmiths willing to work on it.
The "founding fathers" of the global market for replica historical weapons: Val Forgett II and Aldo Uberti, in two photos from 1960
After visiting the arms hubs of the United Kingdom (Birmingham), Belgium (Liège), and France (Saint-Étienne), on the eve of the centenary of the American Civil War, Val Forgett landed in Italy, specifically in Val Trompia.
At the time, none of the major Italian gun manufacturers were interested in producing replicas of muzzle-loading revolvers or other antique weapons, but Val Forgett was put in touch with Vittorio Gregorelli, a components manufacturer, and, more importantly, with a 33-year-old, also a history enthusiast and then a Beretta employee: Aldo Uberti.
Aldo Uberti and Vittorio Gregorelli confirmed to Val Forgett that the project was certainly feasible, and agreed to an initial production run of one thousand Colt 1851 Navy revolvers, at a price of $5 each. In 1957, $5,000 was a considerable sum, the price of a house: and at that point, Val Forgett had to find a way to finance the operation.
Francis Bannerman and the castle on Pollepel Island
Francis Bannermann (1851-1918)
Born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1851 and moved to the United States with his family at the age of three, Francis Bannerman VI founded his own company at the young age of fourteen: the Francis Bannerman Co. initially created boat equipment by melting down discarded military belt buckles (editor's note: these would be highly collectible today!) to extract the brass. However, it quickly shifted its core business to focus on the purchase and resale of surplus weapons disposed of by the U.S. Armed Forces after the American Civil War.
In 1903, forty years after its founding, the Bannerman Co. had moved its headquarters to New York, where it operated a major military surplus boutique that covered everything from long and short rifles, muzzle-loading and metal-cartridge guns, to uniforms, swords, bayonets, and artillery pieces, and published a catalog over 300 pages long.
The origin of the goods was now international, and so was the clientele: it was said that Bannerman could "equip an entire army with 10,000 rifles and 10,000 saddles in a week without a problem." By 1900, Bannerman was one of the most prominent and wealthy businessmen in New York, and had purchased the small island of Pollepel, on the Hudson River, north of West Point, to build a Scottish-style castle there that he would use as a warehouse for his goods.
Francis Bannerman VI died in New York in 1918, but his family continued to own and operate both the business and the castle—and everything it contained—until the late 1950s, when the heirs decided to liquidate it. The State of New York proposed purchasing Pollepel Island and Bannerman Castle to turn it into a park, but a major obstacle stood in the way of closing the deal.
Bannerman Castle, just above West Point Military Academy
Bannerman Castle, abandoned for years, on the Hudson River
By then, the castle contained very little of what had been Bannerman's vast inventory. Among that "very little" were hundreds of old artillery shells, some dating back to the Spanish-American War of 1898. These were rusty and leaking picric acid, one of the most unstable and sensitive explosives in existence. Furthermore, a fire explosion in 1920 had scattered many of those shells everywhere. The island needed to be completely cleared.
The US Armed Forces, contacted by the Bannerman family, refused to provide the service; however, among the last institutions contacted was the Aberdeen Proving Ground, where someone remembered a young man who had demonstrated familiarity with explosive materials and had earned the qualification of an expert in explosives disposal (EOD) under the guidance of Colonel George Jarrett. Their words to the Bannerman family, verbatim, were: "If anyone's crazy enough to do this, it's Val Forgett."
The reclamation of the Bannerman castle and the beginning of a great story
The opportunity to reclaim Bannerman Castle came at just the right time. Val Forgett agreed to assess the costs of the reclamation work and, after a thorough inspection during which he realized the disastrous state of the island, he calculated the final cost of the operation to be very high—so high that he actually thought he could easily add the sum needed to produce Colt 1851 Navy replicas, thinking the Bannermans would never agree, especially since it was an incredibly dangerous job.
But the Bannermans agreed: and over the course of a summer, Forgett and his team managed to reclaim the castle within the deadline agreed upon with the heirs and thus obtained the funds needed to begin production in Val Trompia in 1959 of the first batch of 1,000 Colt 1851 Navy replicas.
In these photos, a rare example of the first version of the replica of the Colt Navy 1851 made by Aldo Uberti and Vittorio Gregorelli starting in 1959
Those first revolvers were simply branded GU (Gregorelli - Uberti), but in fact they were the first replicas of historic Valtrompia weapons. The rest is history: Navy Arms became a major company, establishing its own production lines over time and also branching out into the distribution of more modern weapons.
Aldo Uberti and Vittorio Gregorelli soon separated, and from their separation was born A. Uberti, the undisputed leading brand in the American West weapons sector, founded in 1959 specifically to supply the US market (through Navy Arms) with historical replicas in view of the imminent centennial of the start of the American Civil War, a centennial that had caused an explosion in demand.
An image of the Uberti company in the 1960s
Val Forgett remained very private about the reclamation of Bannerman Castle, at least until the 1990s, when he spoke about it in detail at the Armor and Arms Club of New York. His firsthand testimony is still available on YouTube today, for the benefit of posterity. His son, Val Forgett III – current President of Navy Arms – recently gave an interview to the popular American YouTube channel Forgotten Weapons regarding the story that links Francis Bannerman's explosive legacy, Val Forgett's entrepreneurial spirit, and Uberti, the birth of the modern historical replica industry in Val Trompia.
Val Forgett II, founder of Navy Arms along with his son Val Forgett III, now at the helm of the company, in a photo taken in Houston, Texas, at the 1993 SHOT Show
The cover of the 1976 Navy Arms catalog, dedicated to the bicentennial of American independence: since its foundation, thanks to the production of Italian historical replicas, Navy Arms has supported tens of thousands of American historical enthusiasts
