Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 66

The Manuscript, Space, Stamp & Collectibles Auction

Western Americana

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 217		Carson City Savings Bank Certificate of Deposit, For Forty Dollars in United States Gold Coin, 3½ x 8 inches, Aug. 18, 1876. Deposited by H.C. McDonald. Attractive with Eagle and Liberty engravings. Estimated Value $150 - 200 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $132
Lot 218		Custer, George A (1839-76). Flamboyant U.S. Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars; his accomplishments were overshadowed by his disastrous defeat and massacre at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1976. Autograph letter signed ("G.A. Custer"), 8 pages, 8 x 5 in., Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, Chicago, Illinois, October 22, 1874. Fine. Written the same year Custer led his major expedition into the Black Hills to investigate rumors of gold deposits, to Colonel William C. Church. The recipient, William Conant Church (1836-1917) was a well-known journalist. Church, along with George Wood Wingate, established the National Rifle Association in 1871 and replaced General Ambrose Burnside as President in 1872. With his brother he had established the Army and Navy Journal. At the time this letter was written to him by Custer, he had covered the famous rifle match at Creedmore between the Irish military team and a U.S. Army team which eventually won. Custer was so imbued with the idea of rifle competition he decided to set up some matches in the West. This letter was unpublished until it first appeared on the market a short time ago. Fine condition; light toning and and tiny pinholes along margins "My Dear Col I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Major Leech & some of the other members of the Irish Team who have been paying a brief visit to the West. Major [Arthur Blennerhassett] Leech was kind enough to present to me the Rigby rifle used by him in the International Match at Creedmore. I am deeply interested in growing attention being paid to rifle practice in this country and have been practicing and intend to continue my practice with a view to attaining greater perfection in the use of the rifle at long range. I have clipped the score of Mr.Rigby from the Army & Navy Journal made in the recent match for the Beswick Cup and have strong hopes of making a better one before the holidays overtake us. I am glad to see an earnest movement begun assuring service of the prominent men in the West particularly in Chicago looking to the formation of an organization here similar to that at Creedmore. It is the intention to establish a range in or near Chicago and if the proposed plans reach maturity I think it will not be long until the riflemen of the west reexercise a challenge from those of the west. And I am sure such a contest would not only increase the deep interests already felt in this important matter but would go far toward encouraging the establishment of ranges throughout the country. Do not be surprised if your correspondent appears as a contestant. Such is my personal inclination and I will only be prevented by official engagements. I expect to find at Monroe, Mich a long range Remington rifle with which I will continue my practice as soon as I return to the Plains which will be in November, early in the month, say before the 15th. I have a target erected convenient to my quarters at Fort Lincoln and a range of great convenience. I wish you would mail to me at Monroe, Michigan Wed or Thurs an issue of the rules &c governing Creedmore & the matches which took place there. Also give me the dimensions of targets &c with the scores made in International & Beswick matches. If sent to Monroe, Mich by this 5th of Nov I will get them. I have also to request & have so promised the gentlemen that you place in the hands of Major Leech and Mr.Rigby each a copy of Life on the Plains inscribed on the fly leaf with my compliments. Do this to my account I greatly oblige; I believe I can get up a team or a portion of a team in the west, say on the frontier that would not hesitate to compete with the same number of those who belonged as do balance of the successful team at Creedmore. Truly yours G.A.Custer." Estimated Value $15,000 - 25,000 View details and enlarged photos	Realized $15,000
Lot 219		Custer, George Armstrong (1839-1876) Autograph Signature ("G.A. Custer") boldy and neatly penned in red ink on an off-white 1¼ x 2.5 inch slip of paper. Archivally double-matted and framed with a glossy chest-up portrait of Custer in civilian clothes to an overall size of 16¾ x 14¼ inches. In fine condition. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000 View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 220		Gatling, Richard J (1818 - 1903) American inventor and businessman; originally created farming equipment but is now best known for the rapid-fire Gatling gun, which saw limited use toward the end of the Civil War. Typed letter signed ("R.J. Gatling") as president of the Gatling Gun Co., on the company's imprinted stationery, one-half page, 11 x 8½ in., Hartford, CT, July 11, 1885. Gatling writes to "Colt's Pat. Fire Arms Mfg. Co.": "Please construct for us, at your earliest convenience, a model gun, like those last furnished to the United States, but using the spring extractor." Light fold and edge wear, with uneven toning near edges, else fine. Gatling's famous gun was officially adopted after the Civil War, but not until the Spanish-American War was it widely used, in an improved version. He had sold his gun patents to Colt in 1870, but as we see here, he was not finished improving the design; a spring extractor would have increased efficiency by automatically ejecting casings from spent cartridges. Colt would fully absorb the Gatling Co. in 1897. Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,640
Lot 221		Pease, Elisha M (1812 - 1883) 5th and 13th Governor of Texas. Active in the Texas independence movement; secretary of the provisional government; co-wrote Texas Constitution; served as comptroller of public accounts in the government of the Republic of Texas. Document Signed as Governor of Texas, one page, 12¼ x 15¾ inches, Austin, Texas, February 16, 1854. Countersigned by Ed Clark, Texas Secretary of State. Appointing James W.Hall "to the office of Commissioner of the State of Texas." Housed in an attractive blue buckram folder. Estimated Value $250 - 350 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $360
Lot 222		Strawberry Valley Account Book From the Pony Express Museum, Leather and suede journal from Strawberry Valley (Yuba County, California), a town founded in 1851. The attractive journal, which is 14 x 9 inches and 1½ in. thick, with marbled end pages and edges, probably belonged to the general store. It lists customers between 1871-73, what they bought and how much they paid. Stamps on front end pages say "W. Parker Lyon's Pony Express Arcadia, Cal." and a handwritten note reads, "Sales book given me by John Bean at Strawberry Valley 1938." W. Parker Lyons operated the Pony Express Museum in Arcadia, California from 1935-55. The museum was a copy of the station and general store in Sonoma, California as it looked in 1850 and exhibited original artifacts from the Old West, including the Pony Express and Gold Rush eras, such as a stage coach, a one-cell jail, safes, gold scales, and a barber's chair with bloodstains from a man who had been shot dead in it. Estimated Value $250 - 350 View details and enlarged photos	Realized $300