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December 9, 2024
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Being a big fan of Russell and 95’s I never dreamed the two had come together. Its gotta be worth a million bucks I bet.
September 19, 2014
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IF I recall correctly, it sold fairly recently. And no where near a million altho well out of my range. Tim
December 9, 2024
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tim tomlinson said
IF I recall correctly, it sold fairly recently. And no where near a million altho well out of my range. Tim
The 1895 Winchester rifle, previously owned by Frank Bird Linderman and engraved by Charlie Russell, sold for $575,000 at a December 2019 auction, which was higher than the initial high estimate of $350,000.
your right, I would have bid it higher if I knew about it AND I had won the lottery the day before!!
January 20, 2023
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Is this the same rifle that was on display at the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City? That was a 35 WCF. There was a story about how the owner and Charlie were on a hunt and Charlie was admiring the rifle. He asked permission to “carve some meat on the old gal”, then used his pocket knife as a.tool to engrave some animal figures. I believe he signed the work.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
November 7, 2015
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Zebulon said
Is this the same rifle that was on display at the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City? That was a 35 WCF. There was a story about how the owner and Charlie were on a hunt and Charlie was admiring the rifle. He asked permission to “carve some meat on the old gal”, then used his pocket knife as a.tool to engrave some animal figures. I believe he signed the work.
I’ve heard a similar story and wonder if Russell did that more than once.
Mike
January 20, 2023
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TXGunNut said
Zebulon said
Is this the same rifle that was on display at the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City? That was a 35 WCF. There was a story about how the owner and Charlie were on a hunt and Charlie was admiring the rifle. He asked permission to “carve some meat on the old gal”, then used his pocket knife as a.tool to engrave some animal figures. I believe he signed the work.
I’ve heard a similar story and wonder if Russell did that more than once.
Mike
I have my own opinion about gun engraving and it is the same as that held by the late Jack O’Connor, a man of considerable good taste in the esthetics of gun design:
I can take gun engraving or leave it alone. If it is not very well done it is ghastly.
Charles Russell was a painter and sculptor of some skill and a lot of imagination. However, after a long and close look at the Model 1895 on three-dimensional display [in a vitrine accessible on all sides], if his famous logo had not been cut into the steel, I believe the work would lower the gun’s value. Maybe it was because he had to use a pen knife.
The characters are cartoonish and crude, resembling prehistoric stick figures I’ve seen on cave walls.
There have been very few gun engravers capable of translating accurate drawings of animals or people into carved steel. Even those whose floral and scroll work is impeccable tend to fail at it.
The Russell-engraved 1895 may indeed be “worth” what some North Dallas hard grabber is willing to pay for it.
But, to me, the emperor’s clothes look very thin.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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