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Wild Bill's Colt


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Posted

One of the pair of ivory handled Colt's used by Wild Bill is up for auction at RIA.  The other is in the Cody Museum.  After Wild Bill was killed they were sold to cover funeral expenses.  The cost?  Twenty-five cents each.  Will probably bring more than that at the upcoming auction.

 

1556813233_ScreenShot2022-05-04at3_23_29PM.thumb.png.05083b20e99a0afaa784b9945a40c45a.png

Posted

I'd bid $7.05 which is what $ .25 is worth today based on inflation rates. :blink:

Posted

.25 cents?? Even back then that is unbelievably cheap! 

Posted
16 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

Remember, he was a holdout - still using percussion pistols in the cartridge era.

Yea but .25 cents?? Wow!! What a return on that investment!

Posted

And Not the one He was carrying when killed ,  Hickok was wearing a S&W Model No2 Army  revolver, a five-shot, single-action, .32-caliber weapon,   It was Given to a storekeeper to settle a debt By Seth Bullock .  This is when they were at the Adams Museum In Deadwood . 
 

billw.PNG

Posted
6 minutes ago, PowerRiverCowboy said:

And Not the one He was carrying when killed ,  Hickok was wearing a S&W Model No2 Army  revolver, a five-shot, single-action, .32-caliber weapon,   It was Given to a storekeeper to settle a debt By Seth Bullock .  This is when they were at the Adams Museum In Deadwood . 
 

billw.PNG

I thought I remember reading that he was carrying a different gun than his Navies when he was killed. ;)

Posted
36 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I thought I remember reading that he was carrying a different gun than his Navies when he was killed. ;)

Yep Hold my beer  , Now local Legend Has it that he was carrying 2 , one (this one made it to the Funeral Home ) the other said to be missing by the time his body got there ?? I have chased it on and off for years does it exist ???  
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21020/lot/4136/

download (4).png

Posted
47 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

I can't have it.  I live in california.   :(

It’s a cap and ball! They’re not allowed in Cally?

Posted
17 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

It’s a cap and ball! They’re not allowed in Cally?

 

Ivory grips.

 

Even though federal law establishes a date of manufacture after which ivory is not legal, the wethers in sackamenna deemed it necessary for the protection of ivory-bearing animals to ban it's sale/purchase regardless of age.  

 

Gotta protect them endangered wooly mammoths, mastodons, and fossilized ice-age walruses, don'tcha know!  :angry:

Posted

Any time a firearm, that has a tie to an American person, or event, and is put up for sale at an auction...well...I always dread the thought of someone other than an American, will buy it, and take it off to "B.F. Egypt", and thus we lose our heritage/history, little by little.

 

 

Posted
20 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

.25 cents?? Even back then that is unbelievably cheap! 

 

If you read the notes in the photos it says they were raffled off to pay for his funeral.  .25 cents for a raffle ticket isn't bad.  It doesn't say how many tickets were sold. Plus, .25 to pay for a funeral is pretty darn cheap, too.  :D

 

Angus

Posted
23 hours ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

One of the pair of ivory handled Colt's used by Wild Bill is up for auction at RIA.  The other is in the Cody Museum.  After Wild Bill was killed they were sold to cover funeral expenses.  The cost?  Twenty-five cents each.  Will probably bring more than that at the upcoming auction.

 

1556813233_ScreenShot2022-05-04at3_23_29PM.thumb.png.05083b20e99a0afaa784b9945a40c45a.png

 

Sure looks like those ivory grips have not aged very much.  Normally, this length of time afterwards, the handles would be yellow.  But it could be the lighting.

 

Very interesting and a good post.

Posted
2 hours ago, Black Angus McPherson said:

 

If you read the notes in the photos it says they were raffled off to pay for his funeral.  .25 cents for a raffle ticket isn't bad.  It doesn't say how many tickets were sold. Plus, .25 to pay for a funeral is pretty darn cheap, too.  :D

 

Angus

Hmmm, you’re right I never thought of that. There could have been hundreds of tickets sold !

Posted
On 5/4/2022 at 7:17 PM, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

I can't have it.  I live in california.   :(

Another good reason to move to AZ!

Posted

I wonder if Bill Koch is going to buy it?  He has Frank James’ 1875 Remington and Colt 1873, serial # 1!  He has a great firearms collection, saw a lot of them when he exhibited some of them in West Palm Beach FL back in 2010-11 not sure. Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. 

Posted
19 hours ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

Wonder how many tickets were sold at auction.  If not many it would have been a real cheap funeral!

I would think funerals were pretty cheap back then. Pine box and a hole and a stone marker couldn't have cost that much. Plus I doubt if there were many people there. I doubt they had a funeral home! 

Posted
On 5/6/2022 at 11:27 AM, Nimble Fingers SASS# 25439 said:

I wonder if Bill Koch is going to buy it?  He has Frank James’ 1875 Remington and Colt 1873, serial # 1!  He has a great firearms collection, saw a lot of them when he exhibited some of them in West Palm Beach FL back in 2010-11 not sure. Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. 

 

Phil Collins (British Citizen) was and avid collector of historical items related to the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. A few years ago he donated all of his collection, believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, to the State of Texas.

 

 

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