Dave,
You are definitely not the first person to have been taken/duped by defarbed/antiqued replicas, nor will you be the last. L&R guns had iron frames, and the repros have steel frames, but definitely not brass. I am reminded of a guy who bought, at auction from a small Southern Michigan auction house (I will not name it) a supposed real L.E. Tucker and Sons (Lancaster TX) .36 revolver that copied a Colt 1851 Navy during the ACW. It was clearly a replica produced either by ASM or Uberti in the early 1970's that had been defarbed/antiqued, and the name was stamped on top of the barrel lug in modern fonts as opposed to the real deal that was stamped with individual, somewhat cursive stamps.
The individual got into a bidding war with others and paid $2200 (plus 10% auction house fees) for it. I am sure he was very pleased until he got home, researched it, and found he bought a $300 repro.
This is why I thoroughly, severely, disdain defarbed guns, unless clearly marked as a repro.
I am only going to reiterate what other folks have said repeatedly here and on other forums: reading and comprehension! Obtain books that will give at least an insight to whatever gun you want to own. There are many, especially concerning Confederate original revolvers.
If you PM me I will give you a list of many that I have.
I collect primarily Pietta 1851 Navy .36 "type" revolvers (8) since I am an old fart on SS and can hardly look at an original moneywise. That said, I like my repros to look like they would have (new) in the ACW. I have no idea why re-enactors want a gun that looks 150 years old when their uniforms don't look 150 years old.
My Pietta Griswold & Gunnison and Rigdon & Ansley (same as the L&R but with a 12-stop-slot cylinder):
Regards,
Jim