Rock Island big guns
The Sporting and Collector Firearms auction at Rock Island had all manner of guns for collectors to get excited about. Let’s start with an antique special order Winchester
Deluxe Model 1873 Lever Action rifle with factory letter. Manufactured 1883, left side of lower tang marked ‘XX
1054 S’, ‘1054’ repeated in the stock inlet (partially obscured) and inside the buttplate.
Initials ‘R/S/N’ engraved on the bottom of the cartridge elevator. The included factory letter lists the rifle with a half octagon barrel, plain trigger, checkered pistol grip stock, shotgun butt, Lyman and Beach sights, half magazine, and casehardened when received at the warehouse on 25 October 1883. It sold for $6,463.
This next one caught the eye of bidders. It was a Civil War Era New Haven Arms Co. Henry Lever Action rifle. Manufactured in 1863. Filled receiver sight dovetail, replacement rear sight with dovetail cut through the two-line barrel legend, magazine spring and barrel sling ring are absent, replacement lower tang screw, and serial number on barrel (stock and buttplate could not be removed).
Only around 14,000 Henrys were manufactured in 18601866, and around half of them are believed to have been used by Union soldiers, mostly purchased by the men themselves. It sold for $17,625.
Next up, a cased, factoryengraved Colt Model 1849 pocket percussion revolver. Manufactured in 1856 and almost certainly engraved by Gustave Young's shop in his classic German-American style.
With fitted case, cap tin, brass mould, L-shaped combination tool, and small eagle powder flask. This one made $5,581. Finally, some very fancy guns with a pair of decorative Victorian Wheellock pistols. The trouble with these is that they were in poor condition with various parts replaced and others requiring restoration. Made in the 1880-1890s from mixed parts the metal was deeply pitted; principal lettering, numerals and design obliterated, wood badly scratched, bruised, cracked or broken; mechanically inoperative. Even Rock Island listed them generally undesirable as a collector’s firearm in present state. And yet they sold for $3,525! ■