“ When someone pays 300,000 dollars 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 . Half a century later , another pinnacle piece from King Louis XIII ’ s Cabinet d ’ Armes is being offered in an upcoming August auction held by Rock Island Auction Company . Anticipation surrounding the sale has stirred considerable interest in the collecting sphere , which we ’ ll touch on in greater detail , but first let ’ s explore how the fine arms landscape has evolved over the decades .
The $ 300,000 benchmark set in 1973 would be surpassed numerous times in the years to follow , but the auctioning of a seven-figure firearm wouldn ’ t be realized until 2002 when a brace of flintlock pistols documented to George Washington crossed the podium
at Christie ’ s for $ 1.97 million . Even still , such an impressive result was considered the exception for the genre , and the million-dollar firearm remained an elusive achievement until recent years .
Though 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 .
Opposite page : King Louis XIII wheellock Above : Napoleon Garniture
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE 45