WILLOUGHBY, Ohio – As the old Dire Straits song goes, “Sometimes you’re the Louisville Slugger … Sometimes you’re the ball.” Milestone Auction’s January 30 Premier Firearms Auction boasted three guns that sold in excess of $20,000, however, the lot that shot to the top of prices realized in the $1.5 million sale wasn’t a gun but a rare shooting gallery target that sold for $27,000, inclusive of the buyer’s premium. The backup bid was placed through LiveAuctioneers.
DALLAS (AP) – A rare gold coin made by a noted craftsman in New York in 1787 has sold at auction in Dallas for $9.36 million.
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) – A story and a handwoven coverlet are all that bear witness to the life of an unnamed woman who lived as a slave on a Montgomery County plantation sometime about 1850.
BIRMINGHAM, UK – Fellows Auctioneers’ Fine Jewelry sale on Thursday, July 23, contains an 18th century seal with the coat of arms of Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken-Birkenfield (1724-1767). Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilderness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt.
LONDON – Mary Queen of Scots’ prayer book will be offered as part of Christie’s Classic Week’s Old Master Group Evening Sale, being held live in London on July 29 (estimate: £250,000-£350,000).
DALLAS – The gun Wyatt Earp used to kill “Curly Bill” Brocius soared to $375,000 to claim top-lot honors in Heritage Auctions’ Americana & Political Auction Feb. 22-23. The prized firearm helped boost the total return for the sale to $2,355,133.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – When the first curators at Colonial Williamsburg began to buy objects for the collection 90 years ago, they acquired what they believed at the time to be appropriate for furnishing the buildings being restored in the historic town. These pieces of historical importance and intrinsic beauty were assembled into what is now referred to as the Colonial Revival style. It was the vision of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., who financed Colonial Williamsburg’s restoration, that these objects “should become second to no collection of its kind in the country.”Continue reading
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – A new study has found no evidence to corroborate that a beaver-skin stovepipe hat – for years a centerpiece of Illinois’ Abraham Lincoln museum – ever actually belonged to the 16th U.S. president, according to a published report.
CINCINNATI – One of the best and most complete Gatling guns to be offered in recent years highlighted Cowan’s December Arms & Armor Auction selling for $222,000. The gigantic Colt Model 1883 was a remarkably complete example of one of the most iconic guns of its time complete with original field carriage, limber and a rare original Accles drum.