Million Dollar Dreams : An Investment Class Comes of Age
“ When someone pays $ 300,000 for a firearm , its history ,” noted collector Frank E . Bivens Jr . remarked in 1973 after an ornate flintlock from the collection of King Louis XIII of France went up for auction . The $ 300,000 winning bid by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art set a new record for the fine arms field at the time and helped establish the genre as an elite collecting class .
Last August , another pinnacle piece from King Louis XIII ’ s Cabinet d ’ Armes made headlines in the auction world when it passed the podium at Rock
CEO of RIAC Patrick Hogan along with President of RIAC Kevin Hogan auctioneering a Premier Firearms Auction .
Island Auction Company . The French monarch ’ s ornate presentation sporting arm realized $ 951,750 after auction fees , tax , and all associated costs , firmly setting a new world record for a wheellock firearm sold at auction .
Though six and seven-digit collectibles are nothing new , the number of genres reaching such lofty heights has been ever increasing . A Patek Philippe Grand Complications “ Sky Moon Tourbillon ” set a new online auction pinnacle for luxury wrist watches last March with $ 5.8 million , while Michael Jordan ’ s 1998 NBA Finals Air Jordan XIIIs sneakers brought in a cool $ 2.2 million the following month , a record in the field . The high watermark for a single stamp was broken in November as a rare “ Inverted Jenny ” hammered for $ 2 million , and less than three years ago a six-liter bottle of The Setting Wines 2019 Glass Slipper Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon attained $ 1 million at a charity auction , the first bottle of wine to reach the seven-figure milestone .
While not as widely recognized compared to the collectible classes mentioned above , the fine arms sector has been garnering prices that rival and sometimes surpass its more celebrated counterparts , demonstrated by the 2021 sale of the Colt used to shoot Billy the Kid for $ 6.03 million . The iconic Old West revolver is one of numerous investment-grade firearms to earn seven figures over the last 10 years , and the frequency of such sales has been steadily on the rise .
Top to Bottom : Documented Cased German Silver Banded Colt “ Baby Paterson ” Pocket Model No . 1 Percussion Revolver ; Documented One-of-A-Kind Silver Inlaid Colt Paterson Percussion Revolving Sporting Rifle with Compass Inlaid Stock and J . R . Comer Inscription ; Desirable Early Production Squareback Colt “ Texas Paterson ” No . 5 Holster Model Percussion Revolver from the Charlie Marx Collection
In the last decade , nine of the 13 single and paired firearm lots to surpass the million dollar mark on the auction block have gaveled here at Rock Island Auction Company , with six of these sales achieved in the last five years alone . That prestigious list includes the flintlock pistols of Alexander Hamilton , the Colt revolver of U . S . President Theodore Roosevelt , and a historic pair of Remingtons owned by General Ulysses S . Grant that earned $ 5.17 million in May of 2022 . Though the arms collecting market has been