Have you ever wanted to own John Wayne’s revolvers? The revolvers and much, much more can be yours when Ohio-based Milestone Auctions launches its Historic Military & Firearms Auction on Jan. 27 at 10 a.m EST.
If you’ve been saving up your dough and you’re into collecting historic firearms and military paraphernalia, consider this the mother lode
There are more than 150 firearms up for grabs here, including an 1877 Bulldog .45-70 Gatling battery gun; 1862 full-size .50 Gatling gun; a pair of Smith & Wesson revolvers belonging to whaling Captain Albert Sherman; 1851 Colt Revolver owned by Confederate Gen. John Creed Moore of 2nd Texas Infantry; boxed Colt King Cobra; M1 Garands; M1 Carbines; Ruger revolvers and rifles; Winchester rifles; Brownings; Remingtons; and more.
And yes, John Wayne’s two matching Smith & Wesson revolvers are up for auction. The description says these wheelguns have five-inch barrels and chiseled silver and gold grips with inset rubies. The grips have the initials “JW” at the top. The lot also includes The Duke’s hand tooled leather double holster, a pair of silver spurs with gold floral overlay and a pair of leather stirrups with silver and gold floral panels.
Also of note is a custom-crafted oak and leather desk and chair personally owned by Adolf Hitler. The press release says it’s expected to fetch as much as $1,000,000 at the auction. Hitler was gifted the furniture in 1929 by Elsa Bruckmann, also known as Princess Cantacuzene of Romania. The desk and chair saw use at Hitler’s Munich residence and were seized by the U.S. Army. The furniture is stamped with “US Property and United States Forces European Theater Headquarters” and comes with a signed letter from Royal Bavarian Court furniture maker Mobelfabrik M. Ballin addressed to “Herrn Adolf Hitler.”
The auction also includes a Civil War section which features two medical staff swords, a surgical set and hospital register; an amputation set; a bevy of rifles; CSA Gen. William L. Cabell’s telescope; Union Army Major General’s frock coat with straps and more.
Meanwhile, there’s a ton of edged weapons up for grabs as well, including 19th century swords, Tanto daggers, imperial German swords, an Ames Model 1871 USN sword, German hunting swords and more.
The auction contains 691 lots in all.
“We believe this will be our most successful auction ever. We’ve recently displayed some of our key auction items at major gun and militaria shows, and the reaction has been phenomenal. These types of personally owned items simply do not appear at auction, certainly not altogether in one auction,” Chris Sammet, co-owner of Milestone Auctions said in the press release. “Collectors of military memorabilia want provenance they can trust, and the provenance that backs this auction’s headliners is ironclad.”
Like we said up top, the military and firearms auction goes live on Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. EST. To register for it, go to liveauctioneers.com.
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