Sunday mornining I was a phoine bidder for an gun auction in New Hampshire....
www.jcdevine.com you can see some of the catalog...
They were auctioning the life long collection of a noted Griffin & Howe collector, among other things...Griffin & Howe is a custom rifle and shotgun maker that started business back in the 1920's...producing high quality rifles. They were among the first to chamber for the 22 Hornet in 1930, and were closely associated with the Springfield Aresnal in it's development.
I was paticularily interested in 3 of his rifles that were chambered for the 22 Hornet...and several Smith & Wesson revolvers that were customized by King Gun Sights...another respected gun maker of the period..
What really astounded me was the strength of the auction prices, nearly eveything went for 40% ABOVE the auction estimate...
I was paticularily interested in a G&H Hi Wall in 22H based upon the Winchester model 1885..single shot rifle...the estimate was 3500 to 4500...I didn't even get a chnch to put a bid in before it closed at 8000 with buyers premium....
Even more astounding was the Smiths King conversions...one closed at 3825.00 wt an estimate of 1200 to 1600....another at 2400 with an estimate of 800 to 1200....until now I have been able to purchase these revolvers within the estimated price....
But the most astounding were the closing prices on two especially highly engraved rifles...one at $66,700 and another at $41,400 ....record prices for G&H rifles.....
At this point I don't know if this represents a feeding frenzy for collectable guns or just that this gentlmans life long collection was highly sought after....