June 22, 2024 Brian Lebel's Santa Fe Old West Events Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/22/2024
SERIAL 158719. MFG. 1894. BARREL 4 3/4". CALIBER 38-40. Factory letter states gun shipped to Simmons Hardware, St. Louis on October 21, 1894, blue and case finish, grips not listed. Gun now sports a pair of MOP two-piece grips. Barrel has correct two-line barrel address. Also has the two-line patent dates on frame. Matching serial number on frame trigger guard and back strap with .38 WCF on left side of barrel. This gun is accompanied by an unmarked holster that is not a Bridgeport. This holster is a double loop, full skirt, sewn toe, hand tooled with circular designs and decorated with 9-silver conchos. It is in excellent condition. CONDITION: Very good. Barrel retains about 30% blue, as does the housing. Balance of gun is a butter smooth grey patina with sharp legends. Gun has all four clicks with solid half cock. Bore is sharp. It is noted in the article that old Yancy sent many a man to his maker, but was well liked and honest. He went on to become a local legend.
Provenance: Ex Ron & Linda Gillett Collection
This gun is attributed to a colorful poker player and sometimes sheriff, Yancy "Poker" Jackson, who plied his trade in the Tintic mining towns in Utah as early as 1896. He was hired by Hans Hassel to be the house man at his saloon that catered to miners in the area. In an article in the New Gun Week, April 27, 1987, this gun is listed by serial number as one of his tools of the trade. The writer E. Dixon Larson recalled his first meeting with Yancy in 1957. In another article in the Oklahoma State Trooper magazine of Summer 1988, Larson writes a story about the infamous Bridgeport holster, noting "Perhaps the most infamous documented use of the Bridgeport Holster was by Yancy Jackson", again with photographs of Yancy, this gun, and his Bridgeport rig.