ROCK ISLAND, ILL. — The Millikin Dragoon, a circa 1857 Colt percussion revolver offered in Rock Island Auction Company’s May 3–5 sale, sold for $1.66 million. It ranks as the second highest result the auction house has ever achieved for a Colt percussion revolver, following the 2018 $1.84 million result for the “Danish Sea Captain” Walker. The Millikin Dragoon was worked by Colt’s master engraver Gustave Young and was from a series of presentation-grade dragoons. Others from the run were gifted to Czar Alexander II and his two brothers, Samuel Colt’s chief engineer E.K. Root and US Secretary of War John B. Floyd. John Minor Millikin Jr (1834–1862) was a Colonel of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and was killed in action leading a saber charge against Confederate forces at Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tenn. The revolver came with a partitioned case with a Blunt & Syms trade card on the interior of the lid, lead rounds, a “COLTS/PATENT” marked high gloss blued steel double cavity bullet mold, double face Colt Dragoon powder flask and Eley Brothers cap tin. The Dragoon had been included in the 1961 exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum titled “Samuel Colt Presents” and came with clear provenance down from John Millikin. Colt historian R.L. Wilson called it “one of the classics of Colt collecting.” Watch for a full review in a future issue.
