The most expensive weapon
The whole steppe was dotted around
Killed with expensive weapons.
Shah Ardashir ordered to collect the loot
And distribute all the booty to the military men.
Abul Qasim Ferdowsi "Shah-name"
Killed with expensive weapons.
Shah Ardashir ordered to collect the loot
And distribute all the booty to the military men.
Abul Qasim Ferdowsi "Shah-name"
stories about weapons. Expensive weapons... Oh, how flexible this concept is. Should we consider a weapon expensive because it required a lot of labor for its production, or is it expensive because it is made from expensive materials? Weapons decorated with gold and diamonds are obviously expensive. But is it really expensive? That’s what matters.
But there is one more criterion: the rarity of the weapon as a collectible. That is, its sample itself can be quite inexpensive, but if it turns out that it belonged to some famous person, then its cost can increase tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times.
Today we will talk about just such an ultra-expensive weapon, which was sold to amateur collectors by the Rock Island Auction in Illinois in the USA. This company specializes in the acquisition and sale of various rare examples of historical weapons, and it is clear that at its auctions it sells them to those who give the highest price for them.
We are talking about 10 rarities sold for about or more than one million dollars!
10. Under number “10” we will have a silver Winchester with an engraving by the master Nimschke, model 1866, sold for $977, that is, it did not reach a million, but very little.
Why is it so expensive, since there are many hard drives of this type in America?
The fact is that its bolt box is made of pure Peruvian silver. So this is one of the most unique lever action shotguns available today chambered in .44 Henry RF.
It was made by order of the President of Peru, José Balta (1814–1872), as a gift to the President of Bolivia, Mariano Melgarejo (1820–1871). It was believed that the silver was brought to the United States from Peru, after which the Winchester was engraved by engraver L. D. Nimschke, a German-American master who was so proud of his work that he signed it in seven different places.
It was found in the 1980s by an employee of French President Francois Mitterrand during a trip to South America. It is unclear whether the weapon was donated or purchased by the French, and the stock and barrel were restored, probably already in France.
9. Colt Walker Model 1847 No. 120 sold for $1,035 million.
The fact is that Model No. 120 of 1847 was the last Colt Walker made for the army, and they were not produced again. Everyone knows that Samuel Colt and Texas Ranger Samuel H. Walker teamed up to develop the Model 1847, which is considered Colt's most historically significant revolver because so many cowboys and settlers of the American West used it. The Colt Walker was also a favorite weapon of the military.
When the Colt Company signed a contract to supply them to the army, a thousand revolvers were manufactured and sent to the Whitneyville Armory in January 1847. The arms were distributed among the five companies of the American Dragoons, A through E. The first four companies each received 220 revolvers, and Company E received 120.
This Colt Walker is marked "E Company No. 120" on the revolver grip, making it the last Walker under contract. It has no fancy inlays or decorative engravings, and was created for military use, so it has only a blued barrel, a color case-hardened frame, a brass trigger guard, and a walnut grip.
The McClure family of Wyoming owned this revolver for over 100 years until collector Robert Funk purchased it from them in the 1970s. It is believed that the original owner of the Model 120 was George Charles McClure, who used the pistol during the American Civil War and brought it with him when he moved west from Illinois in 1873.
8. Alexander Hamilton flintlock pistols with holsters: $1,15 million. Hamilton received these flintlock pistols for his heroism in the Revolutionary War.
Very few personal firearms belonging to America's Founding Fathers still survive, making this pair of .58 caliber flintlock pistols a true rarity.
General Philip Schuyler gave this set to Alexander Hamilton, who became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, for his heroism during the Revolutionary War. Hamilton and Washington were the only two Founding Fathers to serve with distinction in the Continental Army.
They remained in the Hamilton family for 150 years until Hamilton's great-grandson Schuyler Hamilton III sold them in the 1940s.
The matched pair of pistols is still functional. The 9-inch smoothbore barrels and sides are engraved with a floral design, the letters AH are engraved on the top of the pistol grip, just behind the hammer, and the buttplate and trigger guard are made of brass.
7. Best known Winchester 1886: $1,2 million. One of the most beautiful rifles in existence, 1886, chambered in .50 Espress. Engraved and signed by John Urlich.
Certainly, this rifle is one of the most coveted examples of lever action shotguns for collectors around the world. This 1886 example from the Maccrocchi Collection is a Grade No. 1 model and features gold and platinum inlays with animal engravings, including a cougar and grazing deer on the right side of the receiver, a bear and two dogs on the left side, and a head moose on the underside of the receiver. Most of the metal parts are inlaid with gold or platinum. The wooden fore-end and part of the butt are also decorated with floral carvings.
6. Winchester Model 1886, serial number 1: $1,26 million.
Captain Henry Lawton received this rifle after Apache Chief Geronimo surrendered to him. Moreover, this is not the Winchester that belonged to Geronimo. It's just that when he surrendered to Lawton, a group of wealthy New Mexico cattlemen gave him this gun as a thank you for freeing him from fear.
The top of the barrel between the receiver and rear sight of the .45/70 is marked "Albee to Lawton." Moreover, Lieutenant George E. Albee was the person who gave it to Lawton, but the gift was made precisely by the cattlemen as a token of gratitude for the capture of Geronimo.
Interestingly, although John Browning designed the rifle in 1886, it is still in production. Teddy Roosevelt used this model, easily identified by its octagonal trunk, while ranching in the Dakotas before becoming president.
The Model 1886 was designed to handle larger cartridges.
5. Teddy Roosevelt's Colt: $1,47 million. The 38th President of the United States received this Colt, chambered in .26 Long, for his 54th birthday just days before a failed attempt on his life during the 1912 campaign in Milwaukee.
Then John Flammang Schrank's bullet struck Roosevelt in the chest, passing through a steel eyeglass case and a paper copy of the speech he was scheduled to give, which he delivered with the bullet lodged in his chest, before going to the hospital.
After this incident, Roosevelt never again appeared in public without a weapon, and this revolver may well have been one of the revolvers he carried.
The pistol has an ivory handle and a round barrel. The author of the engraving is considered to be Colt's master engraver Kuno Helfricht. Roosevelt, an avid hunter and marksman, famously went on safari to Africa in 1909. This expedition was later described in his book, African Game Trails.
4. Engraved Gustave Young Model 1,67 Colt: $XNUMX million.
This ivory-handled .44 caliber percussion revolver was part of a series of presentation revolvers for gifts, three of which were given to Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his two brothers.
This model was assembled in 1857 and decorated with floral designs by Gustave Young, one of the most famous American firearms engravers of the XNUMXth century. Young also featured an eagle head, a dog head, and a wolf head on the barrel lug, frame, and trigger, respectively.
This Colt was originally owned by Union Army Colonel John Minor Millikin, Jr., who was killed in action at Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Millikin's son Paul inherited it after his father's death when he was only 4 years old.
Paul Minor Millikin served in the Spanish-American War, became police chief of Cincinnati, and even fought in World War I. His name is engraved on the revolver, but misspelled: “P. M. Milliken."
3. Danish civilian Colt Walker $1,84 million.
To prevent it from being stolen during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the revolver was kept buried in the garden for much of the 1940s. In 1846, President James K. Polk purchased 1 .000 caliber revolvers for the US Army. After completing the order, the Colt company produced only 44 civilian Walkers - this is one of them.
It is said that Nils Hanson, a Danish sea captain, bought it from Colt during a trip to New York. He returned to Denmark with this revolver, and it was passed down from generation to generation until a Danish gun collector bought it from the captain's family. It was he who buried the pistol in its case in the garden so that it would not be found by the Nazis during the occupation of Denmark in the 1940s.
The Colt reappeared in the United States in the 1950s, where it sold for $10, then a record for an antique American firearm.
2. Napoleon Bonaparte's weapons have always been prized, so $2,875 million for five rifles and pistols, as well as a sword that Napoleon carried with him when he dispersed the Council of Five Hundred, was sold as a lot in December 2021.
The weapon was made by Nicolas-Noël Boutet, a famous French gunsmith and director of the State Armaments Department during the French Revolution.
The kit included a rifled Bute flintlock carbine, a set of Bute flintlock pistols, and a pair of Bute pocket pistols also with flintlocks. Napoleon presented all this to Marshal Junot, Duke of Abrantes. After the Duke's death, the Duchess of Abrantes sold most of her husband's property (Napoleon did not allow the payment of a pension to the widow), including these weapons.
After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the set was put on display in 1816 in London.
1. General Ulysses Grant's New Model Remington Army Revolvers: $5,17 million.
Grant's revolvers are considered two of the most valuable weapons in American history. stories. The Remington .44 caliber revolvers with an eight-inch octagonal barrel were likely given to him after his troops captured Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.
The historical significance of these two Civil War revolvers is on par with Henry Abraham Lincoln's rifle and George Washington's flintlock pistols.
L. D. Nimschke made engravings, including a portrait of Grant, the 18th President of the United States, on each of the handles. The revolver set had been lying around in an unknown location for over 150 years until it was accidentally discovered at an antique show in Las Vegas in 2018.
Serial numbers 1 and 2 are marked on the bottom of the barrels, inside the grips and on the grip frames. It is unknown whether these two revolvers were the first to roll off the Remington assembly line. It is possible that this was a special order.
PS
This material is a rewrite of John Hansel’s material, adapted for Russian readers, published on the Rock Island Auction website.
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