Although he didn’t exactly go out with a bang, The King certainly had a penchant for guns. In Steve Dunleavy’s book Elvis: What Happened?, Dunleavy wrote, “Presley had a real ball giving Kerrs Sporting Goods the best business they had ever had. In just one month he bought thirty-two hand guns, one shotgun and a rifle… The total cost of the shopping spree was $19,792.” So what does The King do with all of those guns? As one is apt to do, he sends one over to Spiro Agnew, the serving vice president of the United States under Richard Nixon. Unfortunately for The King, Agnew sent the revolver back, it wasn’t the right time for that. Because at that very moment, the vice president was under federal investigation for corruption and would resign from office shortly thereafter. Agnew was later charged on taking kickbacks. Elvis’s returned revolver hits the block at Rock Island Auction, along with other top lots from around the country in this week’s picks.
ROCK ISLAND AUCTION
Sale Date: May 5–7, 2017
Lot 471
Elvis’s Gifted Smith & Wesson Model 19-2 Revolver To VP Spiro Agnew
An exhibition quality Smith & Wesson Model 19-2 double-action revolver once owned by Elvis Presley who tried to gift it to Vice President Spiro Agnew only to have it returned. The frame has additional five raised gold North American game animals that range in size from a mountain lion to a moose. The barrel markings and serial number on the butt are in silver inside gold outlined oval panels. The sights are standard factory serrated ramp and adjustable notch. The two-piece grips feature relief carved stag heads among floral scrollwork. The pistol comes with a personalized leather tooled zipper pouch that displays Elvis’s name in bold letters on one side and a floral pattern with turquoise highlights on the reverse.
Estimate: $160/275,000
SKINNER
Sale Date: April 28, 2017
Lot 52
Holtzapffel & Deyerlein 12-inch Rose Engine No. 1071 And Accessories
Cockspur Street, London, 1816, mahogany bench with nine drawers below, mounted brass and steel rose engine with headstock marked “Holtzapffel & Deyerlein / Cockspur Street / London,” two cross slides, crank-operated rose cutter, treadle and flywheel, approximately 12 brass rose and elliptic attachments (some by association), nine-drawer lower cabinet with fitted drawers housing numerous accessories including but not limited to an unsigned, but undoubtedly Holtzapffel, “Geometric Chuck with Gears,” universal chuck, split rosettes and tools, most marked “1071”; 38 inches high.
Estimate: $60/80,000
WINTER ASSOCIATES
Sale Date: May 1, 2017
Lot 142
Circa 1800 Brussels Tapestry
Mythological subject featuring a hunting party, seated prince attended to by three standing figures in robes, fresh kills lay at their feet including a boar and moose with a quiver of arrows in foreground, symbolic plants such as thistle dot the midground, large tree dominates background, floral, fruit and foliate border with interwoven fish/mermaids, masques at top and bottom, 11 feet 11 inches high.
Estimate: $5/10,000
DOYLE
Sale Date: April 26, 2017
Lot 152
Civil War Union Regiment Camp Flag — Guidon Of The 108th New York Volunteers
Silk flag of swallowtail form, the fly in three parts of red, white, and blue silk, the lettering “108 N.Y.V.” painted in gold and black.
Estimate: $7/10,000
HERITAGE
Sale Date: April 29–30, 2017
Lot 72217
Woolly Mammoth Tusk
Mammuthus primigenius, Pleistocene, Alaska. This woolly mammoth tusk is superlative for two main reasons. First, it has essentially no restoration, which is most unusual for this variety of fossil. Second, it is a bluish-green color due to an abundance of the mineral vivianite, which was predominant in the fossilization process. It is virtually completely “blue.” Also, this is a substantial-sized specimen that comes complete with a custom wooden base. Examples from Alaska are known for the quality of their fossilized ivory as this major tusk so clearly demonstrates.
Estimate: $12/18,000
CHARLES A. WHITAKER AUCTION CO.
Sale Date: April 29, 2017
Lot 500
Worth Beaded Butterfly Fancy Dress Gown
Circa 1912, trained ivory silk charmeuse beneath a heavily decorated chiffon overlay, the bodice front and back having a pair of butterfly wings in gold, white and blue beads with blue paste jewels and velvet cut to chiffon, blue chiffon high cummerbund, open sleeve with points and jet-beaded tassels, back mounted with a pair of wired green chiffon butterfly wings with beading to both sides, cutaway chiffon overskirt decorated in the manner of large wings, back of dress covered in blue chiffon over tulle with large gold sequined stripes, gold loop to raise the train, corset bodice with petersham label. Matching headpiece of heavily wired wings in matching decoration on chiffon set on a heavy metal band, B-34, W-26, L 58-76. Former property of Margaret Draper, Princess Boncompagni.
Estimate: $800-1,200
AMERICANA AUCTIONS
Sale Date: April 30, 2017
Lot 189
Antique Plains Indian Ledger Book
Rare antique Plains Indian ledger book with approximately 14 separate pencil and crayon drawings on various pages with Indians, horses, battles, animals, etc. Journal appears to have been written by a mechanic of the era as many entries are for buggy repairs from 1860s–80s. Book is 7½ by 6 inches.
Estimate: $6/8,000
JOHN MORAN AUCTIONEERS
Sale Date: April 25, 2017
Lot 1128
“Lukat — The Lucky Cat” Iron Trade Stimulator
Circa 1920s, embossed tag to cat’s forehead reads “Lukat / ‘The Lucky Cat’ / Pat. Pending,’’ made by Lu-Kat Novelty co., San Francisco, a countertop ten-cent gambling machine and gumball vendor in the form of a seated cat, enameled with black polka dots on a red ground, the cat’s tail acting as a lever which drops a gumball between the cat’s paws and dispenses a prize ticket from the cat’s mouth, raised on a squared wooden base.
Estimate: $20/25,000
CRN AUCTIONS, INC.
Sale Date: April 30, 2017
Lot 84
Eighteenth Century Italian Inlaid Ebonized Tabletop Cabinet
The gallery with inset pierced-brass panels centering a broken-arched picture frame; the main part with center compartment, fitted with three drawers and inlaid with classical Roman figure standing beneath marble arch, a small drawer below; a bank of two over three drawers to each side; all drawers with intricate inlay depicting Renaissance figures in landscapes, primarily hunting; flattened bun feet, 32½ inches high.
Estimate: $3/5,000
