HARRISBURG Pa. OLD WEST AUCTION

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Have you seen this? The city of Harrisburg, Pa. is putting up for auction thousands of old west items that were bought years ago to stock museums that were never built. I wish I had the money to bid on some of thes items. Can you imagine owing a cased rifle/shotgun combination that belonged to Teddy Roosevelt or Custer's Bowie knife. It is to take place on line four days from now. Check it out.

[WILCO]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50151159n

[WILCO]

8.3 Million dollars of taxpayer funds spent on this collection by former mayor of Harrisburg during 28 year term. Also built a 125 million dollar trash incinerator. Total debt of 350 million dollars.

[waksupi]

Although the collectors market is down a bit currently, I do believe they will more than recover the value of the antique items.

[Blacksmith]

There were only 8 bidders in the auction house, but before you get your hopes up for a steal there were 10,000 on line.
Here is another story about it:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/online_bidding_driving_harrisb.html

[fouronesix]

Mercy! The thought of a Wyatt Earp pistol, Custer Bowie, Annie Oakley suitcase or TR guns. With provenance, that type stuff does belong in a permanent public museum of history. It belongs to American history, not an individual. I used to dream about having any one of those type things- but really not now.

[waksupi]

Having been involved in museum restoration for over thirty years, I would much rather see them in private hands. A museum is a terrible place for something to end up in. Museums don't have the reverence for the pieces. The docents handling them may not know a thing about firearms, and once they go into a museum collection, it is doubtful they will ever again be oiled, fondled, or used. There are hundreds of thousands of firearms in museums across the country more or less in piles, as they are more common than one would think on some models, and some museum board of directors would as soon have the genesis of John Deere tractors on display, than a firearm, war shirt, or Red River cart. I remember Jim Bridger's Hawken used to be in a huge pile of firearms in the state museum here. And I do mean PILE. No organization. No care. Rust and dust was the word. I do know they now have the rifle on display, or at least did the last time I was over there. No telling what happened to the rest. My friend Claudia I think is still the curator, and I should ask her about the guns.

[fouronesix]

Hypothetically, comparing the worst museum to the best private owner is no more valid than comparing the best museum to the worst private owner.

[waksupi]

Well, my business took me into a lot of museum vaults, and that is what I saw in a dozen states.

[Reg]

Having been involved in museum restoration for over thirty years, I would much rather see them in private hands. A museum is a terrible place for something to end up in. Museums don't have the reverence for the pieces. The docents handling them may not know a thing about firearms, and once they go into a museum collection, it is doubtful they will ever again be oiled, fondled, or used. There are hundreds of thousands of firearms in museums across the country more or less in piles, as they are more common than one would think on some models, and some museum board of directors would as soon have the genesis of John Deere tractors on display, than a firearm, war shirt, or Red River cart. I remember Jim Bridger's Hawken used to be in a huge pile of firearms in the state museum here. And I do mean PILE. No organization. No care. Rust and dust was the word. I do know they now have the rifle on display, or at least did the last time I was over there. No telling what happened to the rest. My friend Claudia I think is still the curator, and I should ask her about the guns.


I prefer not to go into great detail but you forgot to cover the one thing that erked me more than anything and that was the amazing amount of things that just "turned up missing".

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Triple what waksupi said. I have chewed out more than one lazy flake in museums dedicated to the old west, especially dedicated to the horse. There is a museum in Los Alivos Ca. that has dozens of rare and beautiful saddles by makers like Garcia and Bolin that were hand tooled and silver mounted. It looked as though they had not received any cleaning or perservitive ever. There was a full set of very exspensive harness for the big horses that pull beer wagons. The curator bragged that there are saddles in here that are worth over a hundred thousand dollars. I said why don't you get out from behind your desk and take care of them? He had nothing to say to me after that. A guard in the L. A. County museum once told me that there were hundreds of gun in the basement that would never be on display. When a rich collector dies his widow will often simply call a museum and tell them to come and get'em. They will do it even if they don't want them. They figure they can always sell them. The only museum I would donate to would be like the one in Cody Wy. I think it is far better to sell the guns or whatever to fellow collectors.

[MtGun44]

waksupi,

Are you talking about the rifle in the museum in Pinedale? Of course, I'll bet there are at least a dozen
genuine Jim Bridger rifles, and about a thousand fakes.

Bill

[waksupi]

76941
waksupi,

Are you talking about the rifle in the museum in Pinedale? Of course, I'll bet there are at least a dozen
genuine Jim Bridger rifles, and about a thousand fakes.

Bill

It's still listed in Helena

http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!84591!0
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c291/marcbishop/MT009.jpg

I imagine he, like most men, owned quite a few different rifles over the years.

[bob208]

correct me if i am wrong. but i heard on the news that they made a little over 3 mill. with some more going to one of the big auction houses in ny.

now for that other pice bal. md. bought one before harrisburg it did not work was always broke down. they were tols not to buy it. but they did anyway from the same company. and true to form it has not worked right either. the only thing it has bruned is money trying to make it work.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

What?

[bob208]

yes they went in the hole by about 5 mill. or more remember the auction company gets 10-15 %right off the top also.

[waksupi]

Guys, please if you use mobile devises, make your messages in a readable fashion. You are talking to old guys here by a good majority. We need to be able to understand responses.