“Silent Sam” Dealer Display Case. #7999 in the January 1, 1978 T/C Dealer Price Sheet pg. Note : I have included a scanned copy of this Dealer Price List page, the last picture in the listing. Perhaps 1974 or before through 1979 (see Description below). It takes up 12 of space (depth) when the supporting legs are attached. The legs can be removed and it can be slipped into a display case or it can be hung on a wall. It holds one Contender pistol and four accessory barrels, one of the display cutouts accommodating a heavy barrel or ribbed variation. Silent Sam is a top-notch winner! Is what Thompson/Center said about their dealer display case when it was first made available in the Dealer Price List sheets (it was never marketed to individuals, only dealers). I have included two articles from the Thompson/Center Association magazine, One Good Shot, the first from Volume XXXV, No. 3, Fall 2020 (pages 4-6, where the Editor, Art Lamontagne, is answering a question sent in from a reader), and Volume XXXVIII, No. 2, Summer 2023 (pages 44-47, entitled “Dealer Display Cases for the Contender” by Kent Klem). According to the two articles there were two different styles of the Contender display cases, with two major variations with each (and the possibility of other minor changes, especially with the second style). This case is Style No. 1, but the second variation, in that this plastic display panel is “tan colored” instead of “mustard colored” (the first one) and this case has the “pivoting brass fingers with rubber coating” for restraining the barrels (these fingers were absent from the first display produced). The plastic panel attached with two brass screws on the left lists 19 standard calibers and 3 wildcat calibers. Art Lamontagne, in the 2020 article, states the following: “Catalog #1, which was the first of the full-size catalogs to be printed, was done so in 1974, and the list of available cartridge offerings that are listed within, both standard as well as Wildcat, is exactly the same as the listing” on the display case I have for sale. He goes on to state, The following year, the. 357 Herrett Wildcat offering was added to the line-up on the pages of Catalog #2 (1975), so it would be safe to assume that the Silent Sam cases bearing the listing of cartridge offerings with only three wildcat calibers would have been offered prior to 1975. In the 2023 article by Kent Klem, he states that the January 1, 1978 Dealer Price Sheet is the first time the Silent Sam displays are even mentioned as being offered to dealers. 2 is pictured on a single sheet flyer and offered to dealers in the January 1, 1980 Dealer Price Sheet. Perhaps 1974 (or before) through 1979. Much other information having to do with the display cases can be gleaned from the two photocopied articles mentioned above, such articles being included in the pictures of this listing. Original stained rough-grained wood with a glassed-in front. I believe that this display case originally had two supporting legs, and it only had one when I received it. For several years I displayed the case with only one leg, but in time I decided to make another compatible leg out of some rough lumber. The articles attached state that the case had a “hinged top cover” that provided access to the removable display panel, but no hinged top existed on my display, not did it show any signs of any hinges ever being attached. But there was a place where there was supposed to be another board (it appeared), so I configured one for this spot and attached it with four screws (see the light-colored board on top); simply extract these four screws and the display panel can be removed. It has a few minor scuffs from being moved around through the years, but no cracks in the wood or marred corners. The molded plastic display panel is perfect, with no cracks or imperfections in it, all the pivoting brass retaining fingers coated with rubber in working order. I would rate the condition 90%, higher if the glass didn’t have the crack and it didn’t have one missing original supporting leg. I no longer display a Contender and additional barrels in this display case in my Gun Room as I did for a long while. Please contact me if you need to pay some other way. Only if you feel the item has been misrepresented. If you have any questions or issues, please contact me so as to resolve them before leaving negative or neutral feedback. I have no control over this.
