JackBurtonJr
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FAIRFIELD -- Eighty-year-old John McBride whooped it up Tuesday when auctioneer James Julia announced the winning bid of $800,000 for McBride's great-great-uncle's Colt Walker .44 revolver.
"Yee-ha," McBride yelped, waving his cowboy hat. McBride, from Montana, will get the lion's share of that money, based on a sliding-fee commission that Julia would not divulge.
The new owner of the pristine Colt, bidding in absentia, paid a world record $800,000 plus commission for the pristine revolver, made for the use of U.S. marshals in the Mexican-American War.
Julia gets a 17 percent commission from the Colt Walker's new owner.
The winning bidder's agent, sitting at long table of hopefuls from around the world, made the winning offer following about two minutes of bidding.
Julia said following the auction that he had sold the previous record Colt for $480,000. Tuesday's sale represented not only a world record for a Colt Walker but a record for all Colts, he said.
Bidding began at $300,000. Julia then interjected a comment.
"This is a tremendous, exciting thing," said Julia, who flew out to Montana earlier this year to seal his arrangement with McBride, a 1952 graduate of the University of Maine. "It is truly one of the greatest prizes of Colts in existence."
Bids quickly increased to $700,000. When they ceased at $800,000, Julia termed the sale as "an absolute bargain."
Known as "The Marshal's Gun," the Colt Walker was the most powerful handgun in the world, Julia said, for more than a century, until the .44 magnum used by the movie character "Dirty Harry" was built around 1954.
The price this Colt commanded was all about condition. There was no rust on the long barrel. No corrosion. No oxidation.
"This is a military gun that normally is found in relic condition," said Wes Dillon, sales coordinator for Julia's firearms division. "A pristine original is a rarity. What we are seeing here is a unique opportunity in the gun-collecting world."
McBride, dressed in a buckskin jacket, said his great-great uncle, John Reese Kenly, first owned the gun and probably used it in the war. McBride said he decided to sell the revolver because his children have no interest in guns, and wanted to use the proceeds in order to purchase land.
"I never shot it," said McBride, 80, who worked as a forester in the Montana paper industry. "I kept it clean. It was in a box until 1941, then we moved to Worcester, Mass., and had it on display on the wall."
McBride said he decided to grant the sale to Julia because both had lived in Libby, Mont. The decision to sell it was not so easy.
"It was a painful decision," he said. "The family would rather have land than pistols. I can understand that. I don't necessarily agree with it."
The Colt Walker was on display in a glassed-in case until Julia's assistant displayed it during the auction. A card beneath the revolver labeled it one of the "Ten Best Weapons," according to the National Rifle Association, in 1972.
It came along with the original flask, issued at Vera Cruz to Private Sam Wilson in 1847. Brevet Major General Kenly later obtained it.
Capt. Samuel Hamilton Walker, who helped design the Colt, wrote in 1947 that the gun was "as effective as a common rifle at 100 yards and superior to a musket even at 200 feet."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5485125.html
"Yee-ha," McBride yelped, waving his cowboy hat. McBride, from Montana, will get the lion's share of that money, based on a sliding-fee commission that Julia would not divulge.
The new owner of the pristine Colt, bidding in absentia, paid a world record $800,000 plus commission for the pristine revolver, made for the use of U.S. marshals in the Mexican-American War.
Julia gets a 17 percent commission from the Colt Walker's new owner.
The winning bidder's agent, sitting at long table of hopefuls from around the world, made the winning offer following about two minutes of bidding.
Julia said following the auction that he had sold the previous record Colt for $480,000. Tuesday's sale represented not only a world record for a Colt Walker but a record for all Colts, he said.
Bidding began at $300,000. Julia then interjected a comment.
"This is a tremendous, exciting thing," said Julia, who flew out to Montana earlier this year to seal his arrangement with McBride, a 1952 graduate of the University of Maine. "It is truly one of the greatest prizes of Colts in existence."
Bids quickly increased to $700,000. When they ceased at $800,000, Julia termed the sale as "an absolute bargain."
Known as "The Marshal's Gun," the Colt Walker was the most powerful handgun in the world, Julia said, for more than a century, until the .44 magnum used by the movie character "Dirty Harry" was built around 1954.
The price this Colt commanded was all about condition. There was no rust on the long barrel. No corrosion. No oxidation.
"This is a military gun that normally is found in relic condition," said Wes Dillon, sales coordinator for Julia's firearms division. "A pristine original is a rarity. What we are seeing here is a unique opportunity in the gun-collecting world."
McBride, dressed in a buckskin jacket, said his great-great uncle, John Reese Kenly, first owned the gun and probably used it in the war. McBride said he decided to sell the revolver because his children have no interest in guns, and wanted to use the proceeds in order to purchase land.
"I never shot it," said McBride, 80, who worked as a forester in the Montana paper industry. "I kept it clean. It was in a box until 1941, then we moved to Worcester, Mass., and had it on display on the wall."
McBride said he decided to grant the sale to Julia because both had lived in Libby, Mont. The decision to sell it was not so easy.
"It was a painful decision," he said. "The family would rather have land than pistols. I can understand that. I don't necessarily agree with it."
The Colt Walker was on display in a glassed-in case until Julia's assistant displayed it during the auction. A card beneath the revolver labeled it one of the "Ten Best Weapons," according to the National Rifle Association, in 1972.
It came along with the original flask, issued at Vera Cruz to Private Sam Wilson in 1847. Brevet Major General Kenly later obtained it.
Capt. Samuel Hamilton Walker, who helped design the Colt, wrote in 1947 that the gun was "as effective as a common rifle at 100 yards and superior to a musket even at 200 feet."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5485125.html
