GUN FALL 2015
The live portion of this session begins on Monday, October 5, 2015.
EXCEEDINGLY RARE GEORGIA MADE SILVER MOUNTED RIFLE WILEY HIGGINS. WILEY HIGGINS KENTUCKY NSN 38 Cal. .38. Overall length 46-1/2", 3-3/4" x 1" buttplate. 31-1/2" full oct unsigned rifled bbl. This attractive highly decorated percussion curly maple stocked rifle, made in the era of "Bowie knives, Derringers and River Boats". Is obviously of Georgia manufacture and has been attributed to the famous gunsmith Wiley Higgins. The percussion lock is surrounded by silver facing, typical of Higgins' guns, (Ref pg 60 of the book Gunsmiths and Allied Tradesmen of Georgia). The intricate 10-1/4" silver toe plate has 22 piercings while the striking 7-3/4" saddle plate is masterfully scalloped. The 6-3/4" silver comb inlay is gracefully designed with 2 piercings as is the silver pick plate underneath the cheek piece with its 3 piercings. The elegant 4-pc silver patchbox has 11 piercings. This rifle has a very unusual patchbox release mechanism, the obvious patchbox release button on the buttplate tang is a decoy, close examination shows a small hole in its center which when pressed hard to release the patchbox door, contains a needle that pierces the thumb. This cataloger has only ever seen this decoy devise on one other occasion on a rifle by David Cooley. The actual patchbox release is located in the rear flange of the trigger guard, the last 3/8" portion of the trigger guard overlapping the toe plate is serrated and, if carefully pushed rearward with your fingernail, will open the patchbox. The 40 decorative silver inlays are very similar in design to those on Higgins' pistols/rifles pictured in the Georgia book. Wiley Higgins was born in Laurens County, SC, after which he settled as a gunsmith in Monroe County, GA, and later in Macon County, GA, in about 1850. Higgins is the most celebrated of all the identified early Georgia gun makers. A signed rifle by Higgins pictured in Joe Kindig's Thoughts On The Kentucky Rifle In Its Golden Age was described by Kindig as "By far the most artistic Kentucky rifle of its period that I have ever seen". That rifle is presently on display in Louisville, KY, in the collection of the Frazer Gun Museum. In addition, a pistol attributed to Higgins is in the collection at Andrew Jackson's home "The Hermitage" having been a family piece attributed to Higgins which was made for the Governor of Arkansas. Guns attributed to Higgins have done extremely well in past auctions, a pistol attributed to Higgins sold recently in our Fall 2013 auction lot #2331. CONDITION: Fine, the rear sight was moved rearward about 3" in period as the shooter aged, the bbl has been shortened somewhat at the muzzle in period. The patchbox release mechanism is intricate and is sometimes difficult to operate properly after its pushed back to open the patchbox it has to be reset by manually pushing the release back toward the trigger guard. The mechanism does work and simply requires adjustment. 49613-4 RGG (7,500-12,500)