I remember it had been sold at least once before about a year or two earlier. I contacted Rock Island Auctions after it had been listed in the 2017 auction, due to the fact it was falsely being advertised as the gun used by Dr. Snook to win his gold medal. He was shooting on the revolver team when he won the golld medal, per Captain R H Sayres Olympic report that year.
Are you referring to Walter Heightshoe's 1946 letter where it states this pistol was referenced, as follows: "…know it to have been used by him in winning several world's records'? For once, in this case, the braggadocio was not by the auction house, but just in an old letter, and the auction house doesn't even mention this in its write up.
I never thought this pistol to be the one used in winning the Gold Medal at the 1920 Olympics, and none of the paperwork makes this claim.
I imagine being captain of the revolver team at the Olympics at least implies that Dr Snook was using a revolver when he won the gold medal, and not a pistol. What revolver would he have used?
There is the question of the legality of owning this pistol with the serial number removed. I imagine it is known not from the usual location at the front of the grip, but, rather, from the barrel latch?
I don't know whether the inscription applied by Philip Bascomb of Bascomb Jewelers at the request of Frank Milhon was subsequent to what is claimed to be the original inscription as they appear to have been applied at the same time. I think the inscription is for the sake of posterity and likely not applied during Dr Snook's lifetime—meaning "JHSnook World's Champion', the reference to his electrocution being applied later.
It's even debatable if the inscription adds or subtracts value from this pistol.
In 2017, the pre auction estimate on it was $3000 to $5000. Presumably, if there was a reserve on this pistol was no more than $3000, if there was a reserve at all. I would think the opening bid was $1500–half of the pre auction low end estimate. Probably no one thought this pistol to be worth $3000, if there was a reserve that was the low end pre auction estimate. I would think someone out there would think this pistol to be worth $1500 plus juice, but maybe not. Maybe the removed serial number and the legality of that—and what is that?—deterred interest.
It's a heavily modified pistol customized for the owner, Dr Snook, as many Target pistols were back in the day. My interest lies in the fact the owner was a veterinarian as well. One who usually makes the number one listing in the Top 10 list of "Bad Boys (and Girls) of Veterinary Medicine". FWIW, a former employer of mine now sometimes makes that list as well, LOL!
