Wyatt Earp’s Colt .45 is being auctioned off by J. Levine Auction & Appraisal.
Two guns belonging to the Old West lawman Wyatt Earp are expected to fetch as much as $275,000 at an upcoming auction in mid-April in Scottsdale.
J. Levine Auction & Appraisal anticipate more than 6,000 bidders will vie for the two collectables, one of which is Earp’s famous Colt .45-caliber revolver that he reportedly carried in Tombstone and likely used during the O.K. Corral shootout, and the other is his Winchester lever-action shotgun.
“This is American history here, and not only is it that, it’s Western folklore. … This gun, the O.K. Corral shootout, it’s lived on where other stories have not stood the test of time,” Josh Levine, the owner of the auction house, told AZ Central.
While the Colt .45 is missing serial numbers, an X-ray revealed they were still visible and validated that it did indeed belong to the gunslinger. The firearms will also come with a sworn affidavit from Glenn Boyer, the previous owner, verifying the guns’ authenticity. Even still, some say Boyer’s muddied past leave room for skepticism.
“When you have things that come from a highly reputable collection or collector, most collectors would accept those,” said John Boessenecker, a San Francisco collector of guns and Western memorabilia. “The biggest problem is that anything that came through Glenn Boyer’s hands – how do we know Glenn Boyer didn’t write it himself?”
Also included in the lot are 32 boxes of reel-to-reel and taped interviews with Earp family members valued at $80,000-$100,000, Virigl Earp’s Colt revolver valued at $20,000-$30,000, Nathan Earp’s Remington Ball and Cap revolver valued at $6,000-$8,000, and other Earp family effects.
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