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President Theodore Roosevelt’s gun sold for nearly $1 million this past December at a Rock Island Auction Company event.
The gun, a Smith & Wesson New Design No. 3 revolver dating to the late 1890s, had a hammer rate of $910,625.
That figure puts it near to the prop gun utilized by Harrison Ford’s character Han Solo in the initial Star Wars film from 1977, which netted over $1 million during a Rock Island auction last August.
Roosevelt’s gun, according to provenance papers offered by Rock Island, was received by the previous president on May 12, 1898, when he then a lieutenant colonel was to train the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, informally referred to as the Rough Riders and the only United States military unit to see combat in the Spanish-American War.
“Firearms with presidential ties are highly sought after and extremely difficult to find,” Rock Island Auction Company president Kevin Hogan said in a statement. “Being tied to such an important office frequently places these arms at historic moments in American history. We’ve had the responsibility of offering three presidential arms in 2022, which is unheard of, but it never ceases to be something special.”
Though the revolver fitted to fire.38 caliber rounds, the United States service cartridge at the time was suggested to be used in the Spanish-American War.
Roosevelt notoriously used a Colt double-action revolver restored from the wreckage of the USS Maine, the US Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898.
The damage of the Maine is credited with beginning the war, though what eventually sunk the ship is still discussed.
Roosevelt supposedly kept the Smith & Wesson firearm as a “nightstand handgun” till the end of his life. After he passed, his other half, Edith, offered the gun to James E. Amos, the bodyguard and valet of the former president.
