Lot 113

Historic President Chester A. Arthur Double Barrel Shotgun

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Historic President Chester A. Arthur Double Barrel Shotgun

Estimate: $50,000 - $85,000

Starting Bid: $45,000

(0 Bids)

by Rock Island Auction Company
June 27, 2026 5:00 PM CDT
Live Auction
3600 Harwood Road
Bedford, TX, US 76021

Magnificent Cased Historic U.S. President Chester A. Arthur Presentation Exhibition Grade Victor Bovy 1879 Patent Gold Inlaid Double Barrel Shotgun Presidential firearms are among the rarest and most desirable of collectible firearms and rarely become available. A large number of known presidential firearms are tucked away off the private market in institutional collections and viewable only when on display in museums or historic sights. A select number remain in private hands, but they rarely come available and command premium values at auction in recent years, including the Colt Single Action Army revolver made for Theodore Roosevelt while he was running as the Bull Moose candidate in 1912 which had a price realized of nearly $1.47 million when it crossed the auction block at Rock Island Auction Company's December 2020 Premier Firearms Auction and Ulysses S. Grant's Remington New Model Army revolvers which set a new record with a price realized of $5.17 million in Rock Island Auction Company's May 2022 Premier Firearms Auction. In celebration of the 250th year of American liberty, we have the honor of offering another magnificent and historic presidential firearm at auction: a stunning Victor Bovy double barrel shotgun with "A ARTHUR" and "A ARTHUR PRESIDENT" intricately worked into the Damascus patterns of the barrels and rib and the Seal of the President of the United States of America in gold inlay on the underside of the frame. President Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886) was born in Vermont but largely raised in New York where his father was a Baptist preacher and active abolitionist. He was educated at the Lansingburgh Academy, the Lyceum, and Union College in Schenectady, graduating summa cum laude in 1849 and then beginning his legal studies, studying in part under his father's abolitionist friend Erastus D. Culver. He was admitted to the New York Bar in May 1854 and became a partner in Culver, Parker & Arthur which notably successfully argued the Lemmon Slave Case which held that slaves became free when they were landed in New York which forbid slavery. Arthur himself also represented Elizabeth Jennings, an African American woman ejected from a streetcar reserved for whites, in the Jennings v. Third Ave. R.R. Co. case in 1854, winning a verdict that led to the desegregation of New York street cars by 1861, nearly a century before the famous Montgomery bus boycott started by Rosa Parks. Arthur also served in the New York Militia as the judge advocate of the Second Brigade and in early 1861 was appointed to Republican New York Governor Edwin D. Morgan's staff as engineer-in-chief and brigadier general and saw to improving the state's harbor defenses. He also served as quartermaster-general during the war and later inspector-general. Horatio Seymour was elected governor in 1862, and Arthur returned to his legal career at the beginning of 1863, partnering with Henry G. Gardner and specializing on cases dealing with war-related damages and reimbursements which generated significant wealth for Arthur. As an influential and well-known New York Republican, Arthur was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as Collector of the Port of New York and held the position from November 20, 1871, until July 11, 1878, when he was fired by President Rutherford B. Hayes for ignoring corruption. His supporters within the Republican Party rallied to his support, and, in 1880, he was nominated for Vice President under James A. Garfield at the heated Republican Convention in Chicago. On July 2, 1881, President Garfield was shot and mortally wounded by Charles Guiteau at the rail station in Washington, D.C. After being arrested, Guiteau told the police, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts…Arthur is president.” The Stalwarts were Republicans in support of the patronage system that gave lucrative governmental jobs to political supporters and were opposed to Republicans who supported civil service reform. Arthur had been nominated as vice president to appease the Stalwarts, but with appointment of James Blaine as Secretary of State and William H. Robertson as Collector of the Port of New York, it was clear that Garfield would not defer to political bosses such as Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. Guiteau was one of the Stalwarts and believed he was owed a position as U.S. Consul in Paris due to his support of Garfield in the election, believing his role had been unrealistically influential. Spurned, Guiteau shot Garfield to remove him from office and ensure Arthur would protect the patronage system. Garfield died from his wound on September 19, 1881, and Arthur became president. Many presumed Arthur would support the Stalwarts and stymie civil service reform, but instead, he championed reform, and signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act on January 16, 1883, ensuring that government positions and advancement were tied to merit rather than party loyalty. He also prosecuted corruption within the postal service. He signed the first general Federal immigration law, the Chinese Exclusion Act which limited Chinese immigration for ten years. He initially vetoed a similar bill. During his term, Arthur also advocated for rebuilding the U.S. Navy with steel-clad, steam-powered cruisers. He also worked to lower tariffs, actions that may have influenced a foreign gunmaker to present him this shotgun. A northern Republican with abolitionist roots, Arthur struggled with the situation in the American South where freedmen and their descendants had been disenfranchised and Republican power stifled. The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 effectively blocked Congress from preventing racial discrimination by private individuals and struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In the West, his administration was faced with tensions as settlers encroached on Native American lands. Arthur argued that the policy of signing treaties with individual tribes and treating them as separate nations had been counterproductive and led to violent conflict. Instead, Arthur proposed assimilation, the funding of schools, providing native people the protection of state and local laws, and allotting land to individual Native Americans rather than land being held by the tribes as reservations. After his term as president, Arthur returned home to New York City in 1885 and resumed his legal career, but his health had long been declining due to Bright's Disease (nephritis). He took a turn for the worse in November 1886 and ordered all of his papers burned before suffering a cerebral hemorrhage and dying in New York at the age of 57. American's around the country mourned his death. Cornelius A. Runkle wrote, "I believe all agree that the Administration of President Arthur was one in which the country and the people take pride." Author and Republican politician Alexander K. McClure in "Colonel Alexander K. McClure's Recollections of Half a Century" wrote: "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired from that highest of civil trust of the world more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe." The Southeby Parke-Bernet catalog from July 1974 stated: "After his death in 1886 the gun passed into the possession of his son C. Allan Arthur, who shortly before his death in 1937 at Colorado Springs, CO, gave it to a personal friend, the father of the present owner." It has passed through limited number of collections. Victor Bovy of New York City was an innovative gunsmith in the late 19th century and patented several improvements in firearms. Based on a death certificate, he appears to have been born in New York City in 1847 and died on August 12, 1912. The Bovy family was also active in the arms industry in Belgium, including Joseph Bovy. On March 12, 1877, Bovy was noted as a resident of New York City in his application for a patent on an improved shotgun, and he received patent 191,563. The Scientific American in 1885 reported on "The Pigmy Pop," "A very diminutive firearm made by Mr. Victor Bovy is undoubtedly the smallest in the world. The dimensions are truly lilliputian; the total length from handle to muzzle is one and one-half inches, and the weight is something under half an ounce." It held tiny 2 mm pinfire cartridges. In 1887, he patented another improvement in break action breechloading firearms. In the 1890s, he also patented an improvement for revolving arms consisting of a wedge designed to prevent cartridges from jamming the action and improvements in corset busks. In 1902, he was noted as "a citizen of the United States, residing at Herstal, near Liege" in another patent for an improvement in corset-busks. This incredible shotgun was built with fabulous Damascus steel barrels which show a repeating “A ARTHUR” pattern spelled out within the wrought iron twist displaying a truly stunning level of craftsmanship. The barrels feature a single gold bead front sight on the smooth game rib which shows “A ARTHUR PRESIDENT” formed in the steel, further demonstrating the barrel maker’s prowess, a single gold band at the breech, correct period Belgian proof marks on the flats, “J.BURY” marked on the right tube ahead of the flats, and chambers measured 2 3/4 inches with a single extractor. The barrels are fitted to the vibrantly casehardened hammer sidelock action which displays carved fences terminating in a raised scroll, a carved arrowhead bolster on either side of the action bar ahead of the leg of the lockplates, and extensive highly attractive gold inlaid embellishments. The gold embellishment consists of beautifully executed flush inlaid linework with scrolling tulips which extend to the hammers, blued left-hand throw toplever with carved bestial thumbpiece, both tangs, and the blued trigger guard which is marked "V BOVY/PATENT/1879” also in fine gold. The leg of each lockplate shows a semi-relief gold inlaid game scene depicting a fox about to be caught by a pair of hounds on the right and a pair of hounds running down a stag on the left, and the underside of the actions displays a fine semi-relief gold inlaid Seal of the President of the United States. The gun features beautifully carved rebounding hammers, gold plated strikers, and gold plated double triggers. It is fitted with a nicely figured and mullered border multi-point checkered splinter forend with caseharden and gold inlaid iron, push-button release, and serpentine escutcheon for the tension screw. The pistol grip stock shows exceptional flame figure and features the same multi-point checkering with mullered borders, arrowhead carved drop points, a round Prince of Wales grip, and a blued steel skeleton buttplate with gold scroll on the heel extension encompassing the checkered butt. The mahogany case has brass hardware including corner protectors, lined with red felt and has a gold embossed retailer label (V. Bovy Patent Gunmaker 18[illegible]9) on the inside of the lid. The case contains a set of reloading tools, a screwdriver, and three-piece cleaning rod with two attachments. Barrel and stock measurements (U/O): bore diameter nine inches from the breech measured .728/.727 inches; choke constriction .003/.032 inches; minimum wall thickness .021/.025 inches; 1 11/16 inch drop at comb; 2 5/8 inch drop at heel; 14 1/4 inch length of pull; slight cast-off; weight 7 lbs. 7 oz.

Manufacturer: Belgium

Model: Double Barrel

BBL: 30 inch solid rib

Stock: walnut

Gauge: 12

Finish: brown/casehardened

Serial NumberNSN

Class: Antique

  • Provenance: President Chester A. Arthur; Chester Allan Arthur II; Private Collection, La Jolla California
  • Condition: Excellent. The barrels retain 98% of the original brown finish and distinct Damascus patterns with some finish loss at the muzzles and a few minor handling marks. 95% of the original case colors remain with wear concentrated on the trigger guard tang. The trigger guard and buttplate retain 70% original blue finish with most of the loss concentrated on the buttplate. The wood is excellent, showing some minor handling marks and overall crisp checkering. Mechanically excellent. The case is good with some missing or replaced pieces hardware, damaged corner, and exterior handling/storage marks. This is a highly embellished, historic, exhibition grade shotgun presented to U.S. President Chester A. Arthur and would become a centerpiece in any antique shotgun or 19th century firearms collection and is most certainly worthy of the title "National Treasure!"

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $199 $10
$200 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $25,000