LOT #44217 |
Sold on Jun 22, 2013 for: Not Sold
Johnny Baker: His Winchester 1873 .44 Caliber Carbine....
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Description
From the Fitterer Family Collection
Johnny Baker: His Winchester 1873 .44 Caliber Carbine. Instead of an epitaph, Lewis H. "Johnny" Baker requested for his headstone the simple title, "Foster Son of Col. William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill)." In truth he gave himself too little credit, because in his devotion to Buffalo Bill he forged a relationship that proved to be stronger than most blood ties. He was born in 1869 at North Platte, Nebraska, one of seven children of Lew Baker, a popular saloon owner. At the time, Baker's friends Bill and Louisa Cody lived nearby at Ft. McPherson where Cody served as chief scout and guide for the 5th U.S. Cavalry. The Codys left Nebraska for three years as Buffalo Bill's theater career blossomed but returned late in 1877. They built the famous Scout's Rest Ranch near North Platte, bought and developed property in town, and resumed old friendships. And Buffalo Bill acquired a shadow.Little Johnny Baker dogged the scout and showman just for the chance to hold the reins of his hero's horse, Baker said later. Johnny became a fixture in Cody's life, and when Buffalo Bill started his Wild West show in 1883, largely with hometown talent, 14-year-old Johnny wanted to go along, too. In 1885 Cody relented, and Johnny Baker joined the show as "the Cowboy Kid." It was a formative year for Buffalo Bill's Wild West -- Annie Oakley and Frank Butler signed on that spring, and Sitting Bull was the most powerful and charismatic presence of the season. Baker and Oakley almost immediately became friends. Under her tutelage and with her encouragement, he developed formidable skills with the shotgun, and within a few years he became a star in his own right. The show's publicity sometimes promoted a "rivalry" between Annie and Johnny with Johnny supposedly chivalrously refusing to win, but Johnny once confessed that on his best day he couldn't out shoot Little Sure Shot.
Baker gradually took on more and more of the managerial duties of the Wild West, and in the off seasons he became chief troubleshooter for Cody's far-flung business affairs. As Buffalo Bill lay dying at the home of his sister May in Denver, Colorado, in January, 1917, among his last words was a plaintive "I wish Johnny would come." Baker was trying. s soon as he got word of the old scout's collapse, he boarded a train in New York arriving in Denver just a day too late. But he was true to his hero's memory. With the slogan "Let my show go on," he first tried to organize a revival of Buffalo Bill's Wild West but was stymied by trademark challenges and financing problems.
In 1921 Johnny and his wife, Olive, created a more lasting memorial. Using his own collections, he opened a museum next to Buffalo Bill's gravesite on Lookout Mountain overlooking the city of Denver. Baker ran the museum until his death in 1931. Eventually the city took it over. And it is a tribute not only to Cody's memory but to Baker's devotion that the Buffalo Bill Memorial Museum is today one of the true gems of Denver's mountain parks system.
This Winchester model 1873, SN 250150, has been well-loved. It was shipped from the Winchester factory on October 12, 1887, just as Johnny Baker was about to make the transition from "the Cowboy Kid" (the cowboys' mascot) to shooting star. He and Annie Oakley had become close friends during her three years with the show, and he had applied himself to learning as much as he could from her. Now at the end of the Wild West's season in London, its first European tour, Baker may well have known that Annie and her husband, Frank Butler, were planning to leave (she simply could not stand being in the same country, much less the same show, with Lillian Smith). In any case, Johnny was about to debut his shooting act in the arena. And this fancy .44 caliber smoothbore carbine, nickel-plated at the Winchester factory, was obviously intended to be a show piece.
All of the Wild West performers who shot with rifles at aerial targets in the arena, including Buffalo Bill, used small loads of shot in smoothbores. The reason was safety, not lack of confidence or skill. Solid ammunition with sufficient velocity to reach and break a flying target could (and before the switch to shot, sometimes did) injure members of the audience.*
The carbine was heavily used. Note the wear on the saddle ring and the dark leather repair wrap on the wrist. Along the way the barrel and magazine were replaced and the gun was re-nickeled. The factory records do not indicate a smoothbore, and the original barrel may simply have been leaded out. The designs and lettering acid-etched on the receiver were professionally done after replating.
*Johnny Baker once explained that the cartridges were loaded with about 20 grains of black powder, a "half charge," and ¼ ounce of no. 7½ chilled shot. The pattern would be only two or three inches across making it almost as difficult to hit a flying target with shot, especially from horseback, as with a solid bullet.
(Lot description by Paul R. Fees)
Auction Info
2013 June 22 - 23 Legends of the Wild West Signature Auction - Dallas #6101 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
June, 2013
22nd-23rd
Saturday-Sunday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 0
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Buyer's Premium per Lot:
19.5% of the successful bid per lot.
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