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Pieces of History
- By Supica, Jim
- Published 18 March 2008
- Arms and Armour
- Unrated
A system for evaluating historically attributed firearms.
A gun that is rated “B” may also fall short of “A” status by lack of certainty of identification. This is usually a case where a stack of documentation accompanies the gun, and appears to have been with it forever. However, on close examination there is a break in the claim identifying the gun that is with the documentation as the gun referred to in the documents. This is especially common in guns lacking serial numbers or other unique identifying characteristics.
It’s my contention that most of the guns which are accepted in the collecting community as “authentic” to a particular ownership are B guns. And it is here that we must address a term that is bandied about quite a bit – “Provenance”.
“Provenance” seems to be something of a term of art. You find it in $40 a pop four color high end auction house catalogs, and esoteric dealer ads. It seems to mean the “pedigree” of a guns past ownership, and tends to be a document that states something like “This gun was originally owned by Mr. W who gave it to Mrs. X who sold it to Mr. Y who sold it to me, Mr. Z.” A gun with superior provenance with separate documents confirming each past owner, each meeting all the A criteria above can easily become an “A” gun.
However, often a study of a gun’s provenance will reveal gaps in the documentation. For example, in the hypothetical provenance in the paragraph above, “W to X to Y to Z”, the credibility of the gun is tied inextricably not only to the credibility of Mr. Z, but also the credibility and accuracy of W, X & Y.
Remember that several factors other than malfeasance can figure into the misrepresentation of a gun. Guns may be inadvertently switched. There may be errors in the recording of serial numbers or other identifying characteristics. Plus there is always room for error in intergenerational tale telling. Granddad tells seven year old Sonny how Jesse James personally gave him the old owl’s head revolver in the night stand. All the adults in the room recognize it for one of Granddad's beloved tall tales. Sixty years later, Sonny is certainly willing to draft an affidavit as to what his granddad told him.
When supporting documentation comes up short in the areas of timeliness or certainty of documentation, it is especially important to look at the credibility of the source of the information. In spite of the Grandpa & Sonny illustration above, I tend to give most credence to notarized statements from the descendants of the original owner.
I also believe that the better dealers of antique and historic arms realize that their continued success in the business rests only on their long term reputation for veracity and fairness. A written statement from such an individual outlining the purported history of a piece can go a long way to establishing B status in my mind. The contents of any such statement must be carefully evaluated, and a conscientious dealer will make clear exactly what is known about the gun and the source of that information.
There was a recent Country & Western song, “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it”. A gun can acquire something like B status in the same manner. If a particular gun establishes a particular claim and sticks to it long enough, it comes to be accepted as factual. This usually occurs through the magic of publication. If a gun is pictured in a book or magazine and represented to be a particular historic artifact, it comes to be accepted as such. The effect is magnified by repeated publication or passage of years, much in the way that it is said that old buildings and old whores establish respectability.
I must confess, I have a hard time fighting my knee jerk reaction to accept whatever appears in print. However, I try to take an extra hard look at a “B” by publication” gun to see if it might fall into the D or F categories.
Some gun cranks are fond of saying that a historically attributed gun must be “Provable in a court of law”. This is essentially a good perspective, but any lawyer will tell you there are varying standards of proof. An A gun is provable “beyond a reasonable doubt” while a B gun holds its claim “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Put another way, a B gun is an A gun, but less so.
C. C rated guns are Plausible. They “feel right” but you can’t prove or disprove them. A good C gun will often be supported by some sort of documentation. There are several general types of guns that I tend to give C status:
Dealer-lettered guns – as discussed above, a thorough and well drafted report from a reputable dealer or researcher will put a gun squarely in the B or C category, depending on what the statement reveals. To me, a blanket statement that “This gun belonged to so and so” raises serious questions as to the credibility. The document must state the writer’s reasons for accepting the gun’s history. The best ones are “Joe Friday” letters – “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Stack’o clippings guns – You’ve seen ‘em. A gun displayed under glass with yellowed newspaper clippings, old letters, service records, tintypes, a rusty badge, etc., etc., etc. They are very impressive and nearly always fascinating. The problem is, there is nothing in writing directly connecting the specific gun in question to the individual or deed so lavishly reported.
Self-testifying guns – That is, a gun whose historic claim in based solely on a marking on the gun itself. Usually these are guns with an individual’s name etched, engraved, or otherwise marked on them. Probably many are authentic, but the fact remains that, lacking other information, they cannot be proven. CAVEAT – The credibility of a “self-testifying” gun is inversely proportional to the fame of the individual in question. I.e., on a Civil War era revolver, I would give 98% credibility to a gun inscribed “To Cpl. Joe Blow from his mother” and 2% credibility to one inscribed “To Capt. G. A. Custer from Gen. U. S. Grant.”
D. A “D” gun is a C gun that has a faint odor to it. Something about them makes their claim Questionable, but not impossible.
I tend to classify self-testifying guns with famous names inscribed on them “D” status. Also, inscribed guns where the method of inscription doesn’t look quite right.
Most “story” guns which lack documentation must be considered D guns. Especially if the seller is not willing to put the story in the form of a notarized statement.
Often D guns require a sizable leap of faith. Such as “Well, sure, most Wells Fargo guns were marked with a line stamp, but this one was probably done at a little branch office out west where they didn’t have a regular stamp and couldn’t spell too good. . . “ or “Yeah, I know he said, never trust a woman or an automatic pistol”, but this is probably the 1911 that jammed on him and make him say that.” All of which brings us to. . .
F. For Fake. For Fraud. For Fail. For Impossible, no way Jose.
These are guns that are just flat wrong on their face. Most common and obvious examples are the many six-guns attributed to various Old West desperadoes that by serial number were made years after their death.
Type of history claimed
While we’ve been discussing these ratings mostly in terms of association with a particular historical individual, they can also be applied to the credibility of other historical claims, such as military, police, or agency usage; period of engraving; or attribution of engraving to a particular artist. Please note that when using this letter rating system, you must specify exactly what historical claim is being rated. In application a single gun may have different ratings for different claims.
Consider a Colt Single Action Army Cavalry model in the so-called “7th Calvary” serial number range. Assuming the gun itself and all its markings are correct, it might be considered an “A” as a US military gun, a “B” as an Indian War gun, a “C” as a Little Big Horn gun, and a “D” or “F” as Gen. Custer’s personal sidearm.
It’s my contention that most of the guns which are accepted in the collecting community as “authentic” to a particular ownership are B guns. And it is here that we must address a term that is bandied about quite a bit – “Provenance”.
“Provenance” seems to be something of a term of art. You find it in $40 a pop four color high end auction house catalogs, and esoteric dealer ads. It seems to mean the “pedigree” of a guns past ownership, and tends to be a document that states something like “This gun was originally owned by Mr. W who gave it to Mrs. X who sold it to Mr. Y who sold it to me, Mr. Z.” A gun with superior provenance with separate documents confirming each past owner, each meeting all the A criteria above can easily become an “A” gun.
However, often a study of a gun’s provenance will reveal gaps in the documentation. For example, in the hypothetical provenance in the paragraph above, “W to X to Y to Z”, the credibility of the gun is tied inextricably not only to the credibility of Mr. Z, but also the credibility and accuracy of W, X & Y.
Remember that several factors other than malfeasance can figure into the misrepresentation of a gun. Guns may be inadvertently switched. There may be errors in the recording of serial numbers or other identifying characteristics. Plus there is always room for error in intergenerational tale telling. Granddad tells seven year old Sonny how Jesse James personally gave him the old owl’s head revolver in the night stand. All the adults in the room recognize it for one of Granddad's beloved tall tales. Sixty years later, Sonny is certainly willing to draft an affidavit as to what his granddad told him.
When supporting documentation comes up short in the areas of timeliness or certainty of documentation, it is especially important to look at the credibility of the source of the information. In spite of the Grandpa & Sonny illustration above, I tend to give most credence to notarized statements from the descendants of the original owner.
I also believe that the better dealers of antique and historic arms realize that their continued success in the business rests only on their long term reputation for veracity and fairness. A written statement from such an individual outlining the purported history of a piece can go a long way to establishing B status in my mind. The contents of any such statement must be carefully evaluated, and a conscientious dealer will make clear exactly what is known about the gun and the source of that information.
There was a recent Country & Western song, “That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it”. A gun can acquire something like B status in the same manner. If a particular gun establishes a particular claim and sticks to it long enough, it comes to be accepted as factual. This usually occurs through the magic of publication. If a gun is pictured in a book or magazine and represented to be a particular historic artifact, it comes to be accepted as such. The effect is magnified by repeated publication or passage of years, much in the way that it is said that old buildings and old whores establish respectability.
I must confess, I have a hard time fighting my knee jerk reaction to accept whatever appears in print. However, I try to take an extra hard look at a “B” by publication” gun to see if it might fall into the D or F categories.
Some gun cranks are fond of saying that a historically attributed gun must be “Provable in a court of law”. This is essentially a good perspective, but any lawyer will tell you there are varying standards of proof. An A gun is provable “beyond a reasonable doubt” while a B gun holds its claim “by a preponderance of the evidence.”
Put another way, a B gun is an A gun, but less so.
C. C rated guns are Plausible. They “feel right” but you can’t prove or disprove them. A good C gun will often be supported by some sort of documentation. There are several general types of guns that I tend to give C status:
Dealer-lettered guns – as discussed above, a thorough and well drafted report from a reputable dealer or researcher will put a gun squarely in the B or C category, depending on what the statement reveals. To me, a blanket statement that “This gun belonged to so and so” raises serious questions as to the credibility. The document must state the writer’s reasons for accepting the gun’s history. The best ones are “Joe Friday” letters – “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Stack’o clippings guns – You’ve seen ‘em. A gun displayed under glass with yellowed newspaper clippings, old letters, service records, tintypes, a rusty badge, etc., etc., etc. They are very impressive and nearly always fascinating. The problem is, there is nothing in writing directly connecting the specific gun in question to the individual or deed so lavishly reported.
Self-testifying guns – That is, a gun whose historic claim in based solely on a marking on the gun itself. Usually these are guns with an individual’s name etched, engraved, or otherwise marked on them. Probably many are authentic, but the fact remains that, lacking other information, they cannot be proven. CAVEAT – The credibility of a “self-testifying” gun is inversely proportional to the fame of the individual in question. I.e., on a Civil War era revolver, I would give 98% credibility to a gun inscribed “To Cpl. Joe Blow from his mother” and 2% credibility to one inscribed “To Capt. G. A. Custer from Gen. U. S. Grant.”
D. A “D” gun is a C gun that has a faint odor to it. Something about them makes their claim Questionable, but not impossible.
I tend to classify self-testifying guns with famous names inscribed on them “D” status. Also, inscribed guns where the method of inscription doesn’t look quite right.
Most “story” guns which lack documentation must be considered D guns. Especially if the seller is not willing to put the story in the form of a notarized statement.
Often D guns require a sizable leap of faith. Such as “Well, sure, most Wells Fargo guns were marked with a line stamp, but this one was probably done at a little branch office out west where they didn’t have a regular stamp and couldn’t spell too good. . . “ or “Yeah, I know he said, never trust a woman or an automatic pistol”, but this is probably the 1911 that jammed on him and make him say that.” All of which brings us to. . .
F. For Fake. For Fraud. For Fail. For Impossible, no way Jose.
These are guns that are just flat wrong on their face. Most common and obvious examples are the many six-guns attributed to various Old West desperadoes that by serial number were made years after their death.
Type of history claimed
While we’ve been discussing these ratings mostly in terms of association with a particular historical individual, they can also be applied to the credibility of other historical claims, such as military, police, or agency usage; period of engraving; or attribution of engraving to a particular artist. Please note that when using this letter rating system, you must specify exactly what historical claim is being rated. In application a single gun may have different ratings for different claims.
Consider a Colt Single Action Army Cavalry model in the so-called “7th Calvary” serial number range. Assuming the gun itself and all its markings are correct, it might be considered an “A” as a US military gun, a “B” as an Indian War gun, a “C” as a Little Big Horn gun, and a “D” or “F” as Gen. Custer’s personal sidearm.