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Fastest draw at the auction house
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Fastest draw at the auction house
Collectors snap up antique firearms, Old West memorabilia
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Pieces of the past -- guns from the Old West, Civil War-era swords and a 129-year-old rifle that had never been fired -- brought a pretty penny at a lively and classy auction in San Francisco on Monday.
Antique firearms, swords presented to such public figures as President U.S. Grant and collectors' items like business cards and poker chips associated with gunfighter John Wesley Hardin are increasingly seen as excellent investments, said Greg Martin, whose San Francisco auction house staged the event.
"Antique firearms," he said, "are a fantastic investment," comparable to real estate and what he called "paper assets," such as stocks and bonds.
A total of 162 items went on the block, and when it was over, auctioneer Bernard Osher had brought in $4.5 million in sales. The bidders knew exactly what they wanted, too -- the longest bidding section took about a minute. Some items sold in less than 20 seconds.
About 50 bidders were there in person, and a bank of six people handled bids phoned in from New York; bids also were submitted on the Internet. In less than two hours it was all over.
The top price was $610,000 for a Winchester model 1873 .44-40 sporting rifle with silver inlaid barrel bands in absolutely perfect condition. It has never been fired and is engraved "One of a thousand."
The winning bidder did not want to be identified. He was, he said, a private collector from the Midwest.
The second-highest sale was at the end of the auction -- $490,000 for "a rare, historic and deluxe" Smith & Wesson .32-caliber pistol presented to President Grant in 1870. The pistol is one-of-a-kind with mother-of-pearl grips, its barrel and other parts inlaid with gold and engraved by Gustave Young, considered one of the finest artisans of his day.
The winning bidder, who saw the price shoot up from $310,000 by leaps and bounds in a matter of seconds, also did not want to be identified.
If there was a loser in the auction, it was Pat Garrett, the cowboy and ex- Texas Ranger who killed the famous outlaw Billy the Kid. It was expected that Garrett's sheriff's badge would sell for at least $150,000, but the bidding sputtered out at $130,000. The price did not meet the minimum -- known in the trade as the "reserve" -- price, and it was withdrawn.
Other Garrett material did only moderately well -- his engraved Colt .41- caliber pistol went for $110,000, but a telegram from Garrett to his wife drew only $650.
But other gunmen did well: Bat Masterson's .45-caliber Colt pistol sold for $190,000, for example.
Ingo Underberg flew all the way from Stuttgart, Germany, to bid on three lots of material associated with John Wesley Hardin, a man so mean he once shot a hotel guest for snoring too loud.
Underberg, who became interested in gunfighter memorabilia after a trip to the United States, bid a total of $15,250 for some playing cards, a business card and an account of Hardin's death. However, he was outbid for the bullet that killed Hardin in a shootout in the Acme Saloon in El Paso in 1895. That one, which is top of the line in the dead gunfighter business, went for $80, 000.
Two stagecoaches also were auctioned off. A replica of a Wells Fargo coach built in 1975 went for $40,000 -- the price of a Lexus.
One of the real things -- an 1867-model stagecoach that was displayed at Sam's Town, a Western operation in Cameron Park on Highway 50 not far from Sacramento -- sold for $200,000.
The winning bid came on the Internet. "I can't tell you who it was," said Bill Foote, who handled online bids. "Probably somebody at home in their pajamas, clicking on a mouse."
All winning bids are subject to a 12 percent surcharge by Greg Martin auction house.
E-mail Carl Nolte at cnolte@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/06/04/MN218566.DTL
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Collectors snap up antique firearms, Old West memorabilia
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Pieces of the past -- guns from the Old West, Civil War-era swords and a 129-year-old rifle that had never been fired -- brought a pretty penny at a lively and classy auction in San Francisco on Monday.
Antique firearms, swords presented to such public figures as President U.S. Grant and collectors' items like business cards and poker chips associated with gunfighter John Wesley Hardin are increasingly seen as excellent investments, said Greg Martin, whose San Francisco auction house staged the event.
"Antique firearms," he said, "are a fantastic investment," comparable to real estate and what he called "paper assets," such as stocks and bonds.
A total of 162 items went on the block, and when it was over, auctioneer Bernard Osher had brought in $4.5 million in sales. The bidders knew exactly what they wanted, too -- the longest bidding section took about a minute. Some items sold in less than 20 seconds.
About 50 bidders were there in person, and a bank of six people handled bids phoned in from New York; bids also were submitted on the Internet. In less than two hours it was all over.
The top price was $610,000 for a Winchester model 1873 .44-40 sporting rifle with silver inlaid barrel bands in absolutely perfect condition. It has never been fired and is engraved "One of a thousand."
The winning bidder did not want to be identified. He was, he said, a private collector from the Midwest.
The second-highest sale was at the end of the auction -- $490,000 for "a rare, historic and deluxe" Smith & Wesson .32-caliber pistol presented to President Grant in 1870. The pistol is one-of-a-kind with mother-of-pearl grips, its barrel and other parts inlaid with gold and engraved by Gustave Young, considered one of the finest artisans of his day.
The winning bidder, who saw the price shoot up from $310,000 by leaps and bounds in a matter of seconds, also did not want to be identified.
If there was a loser in the auction, it was Pat Garrett, the cowboy and ex- Texas Ranger who killed the famous outlaw Billy the Kid. It was expected that Garrett's sheriff's badge would sell for at least $150,000, but the bidding sputtered out at $130,000. The price did not meet the minimum -- known in the trade as the "reserve" -- price, and it was withdrawn.
Other Garrett material did only moderately well -- his engraved Colt .41- caliber pistol went for $110,000, but a telegram from Garrett to his wife drew only $650.
But other gunmen did well: Bat Masterson's .45-caliber Colt pistol sold for $190,000, for example.
Ingo Underberg flew all the way from Stuttgart, Germany, to bid on three lots of material associated with John Wesley Hardin, a man so mean he once shot a hotel guest for snoring too loud.
Underberg, who became interested in gunfighter memorabilia after a trip to the United States, bid a total of $15,250 for some playing cards, a business card and an account of Hardin's death. However, he was outbid for the bullet that killed Hardin in a shootout in the Acme Saloon in El Paso in 1895. That one, which is top of the line in the dead gunfighter business, went for $80, 000.
Two stagecoaches also were auctioned off. A replica of a Wells Fargo coach built in 1975 went for $40,000 -- the price of a Lexus.
One of the real things -- an 1867-model stagecoach that was displayed at Sam's Town, a Western operation in Cameron Park on Highway 50 not far from Sacramento -- sold for $200,000.
The winning bid came on the Internet. "I can't tell you who it was," said Bill Foote, who handled online bids. "Probably somebody at home in their pajamas, clicking on a mouse."
All winning bids are subject to a 12 percent surcharge by Greg Martin auction house.
E-mail Carl Nolte at cnolte@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/06/04/MN218566.DTL
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878