teddy-roosevelts-colt-revolver-from-1912-sells-for-1.4-million

Teddy Roosevelt’s Colt Revolver from 1912 Sells for $1.4 Million

President Theodore Roosevelt was known as a man who enjoyed the great outdoors. He received quite a birthday present when he turned 54.

What was this present? It was a Colt Single Action Army revolver with unique markings and highlights on it. Rock Island Auction Company’s “Auction of the Century” was the event where this transaction went down.

Among the revolver’s features include a No. 5 engravings placed on there by Cuno Helfricht, the head of Colt’s engraving shop for a long time. He also was known for scroll engraving, which is a part of this gun. It also has ivory grips with a steer’s-head decoration.

Teddy Roosevelt Always Was Packing Heat With Him

Teddy Roosevelt was all into personal protection. He had to be after an assassination attempt on his own life and the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901.

In fact, it’s possible that he carried this Colt revolver with him to many places. Some people think it might have gone with him as he undertook the River of Doubt expedition to the Amazon in 1912.

This engraved SAA was recently discovered. It is valued between $350,000 and $550,000, but it eventually was sold for $1,466,250 to a private buyer.

Also, the revolver was among the auction’s attractions that included items from Elvis Presley, Annie Oakley, and Tom Selleck. The total earned at the auction was $22,000,000, which is an industry record.

Roosevelt Rises To Occasion At A Young Age

Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt became president when he was 42 years old in 1901. Besides continuing to move through McKinley’s plans, Roosevelt also put his eyes on solving problems plaguing the world.

Filmmaker Ken Burns put together a film for PBS called “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.”

Obviously, a portion of the film was going to focus on Teddy Roosevelt.

Here is a clip from Burns’ work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJJTxu-SyT8

Born in 1858 into a wealthy family, the young Teddy was stricken with ill health a lot. First, he spent time building up his body. Second, he spent time building up his mind. Third, he found both contributed to his ability to live a full, rich life.

The outdoors proved to be a place of healing for him after his first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt, and his mother died on the same day in 1884. He went to his ranch in the Badlands area, driving cattle and hunting big game.

Roosevelt added land to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.

He was passionate about developing national parks around the United States.

“The life of strenuous endeavor” was a must for those around him. He romped with his five younger children and led ambassadors on hikes through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

Maybe one could see him as an outsider in different ways.

In his outdoors life, Roosevelt needed protection and he found it thanks to a very classy Colt revolver.

H/T: Field And Stream, WhiteHouse.gov