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Presentation brass-mounted flintloc

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:5,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Presentation brass-mounted flintloc
Presentation brass-mounted flintlock pistol, elaborate trigger guard
and butt plate with engraved battle scenes, octagonal barrel 8-3/8
in.,
French,
third quarter 18th century, marked "LECAT...," trigger guard inscribed
"Felix Alexander Reeve/Felix Earnest from Col. Sevier," in dovetailed
mahogany case; Felix Earnest (1762-1842) was a Private, Captain
Williams Company, North Carolina Militia, 1780, and Captain Smith
Company, Sevier
and
Campbells Regiments, North Carolina Militia, 1780 and 1781. Cracks in
trigger guard, old repairs to stock, several screws added, barrel
reduced, cracks, losses, other damage to stock. Provenance: General
John Sevier (1745-1815), to his friend and neighbor Ensign Felix
Earnest (1762-1842)
and
his wife Sarah North Oliphant (b. 1784), to their daughter Rebecca Ann
Earnest (1811-1886), m. Thomas Jefferson Reeve (1808-1888), to their
son Colonel Felix Alexander Reeve (1836-1920), Undersecretary of the
Treasury, to his daughter Wilhemina Reeve, m. Green Baughman, to their
son Beau Baughman; to a private collector, to consignor. This pistol
has a history
of
descent from General John Sevier, hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain
and first governor of Tennessee, to his neighbor and friend, Felix
Earnest, of Tennessee, and thence by descent through the family. It is
accompanied by the Reeve's family copy of Lyman Draper's "Kings
Mountain and Its Heroes"
(Cincinnati: Peter Thompson, Publishers, 1881). The book includes numerous
references to Col. Sevier (pp. 568, 572, 581) and Ensign Earnest and
several
19th century drawings that have been added to the binding, including
one
of
Ensign (later Reverend) Felix Earnest, dated 1892. Lot accompanied by
19th century case calling card of the grandson, The Honorable Felix
Alexander Reeve, Undersecretary of the Treasury of the United States.
The card is inscribed on the reverse in pen and ink: "This pistol was
presented by Colonel John Sevier, first, and several times Governor of
Tennessee, to Ensign Felix Earnest who fought under him at the Battle
of King's Mountain on 7th of October 1780. It is now the property of
Colonel Felix Alexander Reeve, a grandson of Felix and Sarah Oliphant
Earnest."