John Wesley Hardin’s DA Frontier revolver sells for $625,312!

[mrcvs]

Bonhams : JOHN WESLEY HARDIN'S SMITH & WESSON DOUBLE ACTION "FRONTIER" REVOLVER CARRIED WHEN HE WAS KILLED BY JOHN SELMAN. Serial no. 352, circa 1887, .44-40 caliber 6 inch barrel with two line address.

Is $625,312 the known record price for the sale of a Smith & Wesson revolver?

If not, which one(s) have sold for more?

If so, what are the runners up?

Unlike most of the firearms in this auction with very shaky provenance, this one is, unquestionably, the revolver on John Wesley Hardin at the time of his murder.

Court documentation from the trial lists this one by serial number (352), "Exhibit B".

For a firearm with a healthy pre auction estimate, you would think the seller would have spent $90 or $100 for a factory letter.

Does anyone have any idea what the letter would reveal? Where shipped to or to whom? But, unlike most of the rest of the stuff in this auction, the provenance is ironclad, and so it really doesn't matter to whom or what entity it was shipped.

I like the revolver and the John Wesley Hardin story. If I had a spare $625,312, I would have taken this one home.

 

[BMur]

Provenance

Now That's Provenance! Old records that actually date back to the event!

Murph

 

[mrcvs]

Now That's Provenance! Old records that actually date back to the event!

Murph

Bingo! Not the fluff presented as provenance with most of the other junk in that auction.

ANY revolver presented at pre auction estimates such as those should have ironclad provenance. Such that if presented as a Master's thesis it would be defendable. Other than Bat Masterson's Single Action Army revolver, this DA Frontier, John Seldin's SAA revolver, and the Merwin & Hulbert revolver, all the rest of the provenance was laughable. As stated elsewhere, a notarized letter is meaningless. Other forums suggested that bidder 3000 bought many or most of the lots and the person associated with bidder number 3000 was bidding on behalf of William I Koch.

 

[iby]

These old DA's were selling pretty well before this auction.
Probably this will give them another boost

 

[Claymore33]

SGT JOHN B. ARMSTRONG

I would rather have the pistol TEXAS RANGER SGT JOHN B. ARMSTRONG was carrying when he arrested Hardin on the Pensacola train and shot Hardin's accomplice . I know where it is but it is not for sale.

 

[BMur]

Selling price

I'm actually surprised the gun sold for less than a million.. Mr. Hardin has a very interesting "Old West" history that included meeting Wild Bill Hickok. Especially having such solid provenance. Maybe they just didn't feature enough movies on him? Like they did Billy the kid?

Murph

 

[ralph7]

I'm actually surprised the gun sold for less than a million.. Mr. Hardin has a very interesting "Old West" history that included meeting Wild Bill Hickok. Especially having such solid provenance. Maybe they just didn't feature enough movies on him? Like they did Billy the kid?

Murph

Then why did Jesse James' gun go for so cheap I wonder?

ttps://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/107780323_smith-and-wesson-schofield-revolver-attributed-to-jesse

Edit: Just read the other comments, maybe it's a fake...

 

[Heinz]

John Wesley Hardin denied ever having shot someone for snoring. And he did not deny much. His autobiography is interesting.

 

[jimmyj]

I wonder what an auction price would bring for a Colt Trooper .357 Magnum Revolver carried and used by the world's greatest, most handsome and sexist police officer in the world named "Jimmy" ?

 

[Chuck24]

Couldn't afford the credit card fee plus I'm pretty sure 6 million is above my limit

 

[Heinz]

I wonder what an auction price would bring for a Colt Trooper .357 Magnum Revolver carried and used by the world's greatest, most handsome and sexist police officer in the world named "Jimmy" ?

People pay crazy prices for Colts, maybe if it has a picture in of him in Uniform