Pancho Villa's Personal Firearms to Sell in Historic Texas Auction

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Drizzt

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Pancho Villa's Personal Firearms to Sell in Historic Texas Auction

Frontier Times Western Auctions is offering rare antique firearms which belonged to Pancho Villa and his bodyguard on November 10th and 11th in Fredericksburg, Texas, as part of a documented historic collection of firearms of famous Old West notables. Other celebrities of their time represented include Belle Starr, Calamity Jane, Buck Garrett, Chris Madsen & Bill Tilghman. These are some of the most historically important guns that exist

Fredericksburg, TX (PRWEB) November 1, 2007 -- Extremely rare antique firearms formerly belonging to Pancho Villa and his bodyguard are up for auction in Fredericksburg, Texas, on November 10th and 11th as part of a documented historic collection of firearms of famous Old West notables. Other celebrities of their time represented include Belle Starr, Calamity Jane, Buck Garrett, Chris Madsen & Bill Tilghman.

"These are some of the most historically important guns that exist," said Tom Burks, former curator of the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, Texas who is assisting in the sale. "It is one of the rarest things in the world for the artifacts of these notables to come together from all over the country." The huge Frontier Times Western Auction includes a double barrel shotgun which belonged to lady outlaw Belle Starr, a pocket pistol engraved "Martha Jane Cannary," the real name of the legendary Calamity Jane, and firearms belonging to famous lawmen Buck Garrett, Chris Madsen and Bill Tilghman.

The Pancho Villa collection includes three firearms; two belonging to the Mexican Revolutionary General himself, and a single action that was carried by Claro Hurtado, a bodyguard who was killed with Villa at the Parral assassination. One of Villa's firearms is an engraved Remington single action with gold washed composition grips. The right side of the barrel is engraved "Doreteo Arango;" Pancho Villas real name. On the left side of barrel is engraved Chih-1914; Chihuahua, a state in Mexico; and 1914, is the year he captured it.

Featured items include a King Ranch saddle, solid silver pair of Bohlin spurs, spurs by other important makers such as McChesney, Kelly, Crockett and Tom Johnson, a rare authentic Colt single action leather holster and Myan figurines. Other items in the auction are many primary artifacts belonging to ranch cowboys of the past such as antique boots, hats, saddles, spurs and chaps; Indian relics, chaps, western art, old west gambling items, a cavalry collection and Navajo rugs.

The sale, conducted by San Antonio auctioneer Randall Hill, TX #7455 will be at the Fredericksburg Event Center at 224 FM 2093, Tivydale Road. Dates are Saturday, November 10th and Sunday, November 11th at 10:00am with inspection from 8:00am until start of sale each day. Preview for the general public is Friday, November 9th from 8:00am to 7:00pm. For more information and photos visit: Frontier Times Western Auction. Bids can be placed by phone, online or via live video display online. For more information call 830-928-0707 or 830-990-1010.

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http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/11/emw566058.htm
 
Jim Supica of Old Town Station (S&W etc. auctions, author of S&W reference books) wrote up a very good treatise on gun provenance and put it on his website. Essentially it was a case of "buyer beware". Great to have around and reread when something seems too good to be true.

Maybe a lot of that stuff is documented to a fare-thee-well and beyond a reasonable doubt; and maybe some of that documentation is a notarized affidavit executed by some old barfly for a couple of drinks.

I have had some dealings with an accredited museum that has been quite "flexible" in that regard. Gives the tourists a thrill, I guess. Jesse James' saintly old mother was reputed to have sold quite a pile of his guns over the years.

The recent sale of JFK's DCM Garand was at least well documented, even if it was not an NM as claimed. In that case, there was no doubt he owned it, and the price realized reflected that.
 
On a side note my Grandmother was a "Harvey Girl" and frequently served Pancho Villa lunch or dinner in New Mexico.

She told us he always had another person take a bite of everything he was going to eat. He always had an armed contingent. According to grandma he conducted himself in a very civil way and was always polite.
 
Maybe these are some of the illegal guns that the Mexican government has complained about entering the country from the U.S.
 
They send us their illegal drugs and miscreants, and we send them our illegal guns.

Sounds like a fair trade. :banghead:
 
Pancho Villa is a relative of mine. He gave my family the house they lived in before they immigrated to the Unted States. Most of my family considers him to be a hero.

Originally posted by Chipperman: They send us their illegal drugs and miscreants, and we send them our illegal guns.

:rolleyes: Yes because the government of Mexico is sending them to us...
 
Sounds like a neat auction! I'll have to see if they have the listings on a website somewhere, I'd like to learn more about the other guns in the sale.

Dienekes, thanks for remembering the article. Here's a link to it if others are interested:

http://armchairgunshow.com/Historic_Guns.htm

Pancho Villa must have strapped on a new gun every morning, and swapped it out for a different one after his siesta, for all the guns attributed to him to be authentic.

He's well ahead of runners-up Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Bat Masterson in that regard.

Like Dienekes reported, Jesse's Ma Zerelda supposedly kept a bucket of old guns under the bed in a back room to peddle as her sainted son's personal sixshooter, and iirc, Masterson would go out & buy a new SAA to immediately resell as his trusty sidearm when he needed to raise a little pocket money while working as a sportswriter in New York.

However, I've seen more attributed to Villa than to all three of those combined.

If these came out of the Tex. Rangers Hall of Fame, I'd expect them to be more credible than most. It certainly is true that not all museums can support the history that they attribute to their artifacts, however.

Interesting that Jane's H&A surfaced for a Fredericksburg Tx auction this weekend. I just rec'd a Bonham & Butterfield catalog w/ a "Case Brothers" revolver (cheap copy of S&W .38 DA), attributed to Martha "Calamity Jane" Canary for their Nov. 20 auction in San Fran. (est. 2000 - 3000)

B&B have lots of historically attributed guns in their sale --

* Outlaw Bill Doolin's SAA, est. $15-30K

* S&W 38 M&P used at killing of Dillinger, est. $15-$25k.

* Geronimo's trapdoor, est. $20-$30k

* Chief Spotted Elk's yellowboy, est. $8-12K

* Bill Dalton's 1886 Win., est. $10-15k

* Cherokee Bill's 1886, est. $40-60k

* Buffalo Bill's 1873 Win, est. $2-$3k

* Virgil Earp's 1873, est. $20-30k

* Wyatt Earp's scattergun, est. $20-30k

I do love historically attributed guns!

You gotta remember, you're not buying the gun, you're buying the documentation, and THAT has to be examined more carefully than the iron.

Jim
 
They send us their illegal drugs and miscreants, and we send them our illegal guns.

Sounds like a fair trade.

Um,,, why don't we keep those guns, and let them keep the Drugs and Miscreants and call it even?
 
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