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WINCHESTER MODEL 1886 LEVER ACTION RIFLE WITH PROVENANCE TO ARCTIC EXPLORER SAMUEL J. ENTRIKIN WITH

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Firearms & Armory Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 18,000.00 USD
WINCHESTER MODEL 1886 LEVER ACTION RIFLE WITH PROVENANCE TO ARCTIC EXPLORER SAMUEL J. ENTRIKIN WITH
SN 50488. Cal. 40-82. Standard grade rifle with 26" oct bbl, full magazine, half nickel front sight & semi-buckhorn rear sight. Stock & forend cap are mounted with after market, professionally installed sling swivels containing an early military-style sling with brass hooks. Mounted with uncheckered, straight grain American walnut with straight stock & crescent buttplate. Toe of the buttplate is bent & the adjacent area has a repair made from walrus ivory. Right side of the buttstock is inlaid in small tacks and tiny pins "S.J. ENTRIKIN / PEARY ARCTIC EXPEDITION / 1893 - 4". Just above the dates is hand scratched "1892". Accompanied by a pair of red fur-covered, striped yellow and white lined hand-made gloves, a pair of brown and white seal skin hand-made knee high boots with moccasin feet, a pair of knee high wooly fur boots with flat heels and attached rubber soles, a pair of hand-made wood and rawhide, tarred snowshoes missing one shoe, a hand-made ships model of what appears to be two mast and long bowsprit, and a small unsigned oil on canvas in early frame. Subject matter is a seascape with a 3-masted sailing ship in the foreground and 2 small sailboats in the background. Samuel J. Entrikin was born Sept 26, 1862 in Juniata County, PA and in 1865, when his mother died, he went to live with an aunt, Sarah Entrikin, a notable West Chester, PA physician. He became a printer but had many other interests including mining, farming, inventing and teaching. In about 1886 he moved to SC taking a job at a school for "colored people" and in 1891 was going to school at Swarthmore College. In 1892, he joined the Peary Relief Expedition to the Arctic. Mr. Entrikin then was invited to accompany Cmdr Peary, as second in command on his Greenland Expedition of 1893-94. Then in 1896-97 was member of a government appointed party to measure mountain peaks in Alaska. He remained in Alaska for at least four more years exploring the Yukon gold fields & travelling up and down the coast to Seattle and San Francisco. He was unsuccessful in finding gold but earned a living as a captain of a steamship. From 1901 until about 1908 he traveled between SC and FL teaching school & other occupations and, newly married, he moved to Cochise County, AZ. He only stayed there a couple of yrs and shortly thereafter moved to Chester County, PA but returned to Narcossee, FL in 1914 where he lived out his life and died in 1942. Consignor states that he purchased this rifle in 1983 from a Westchester County, PA gun dealer, George Gorman, along with a box of misc. fur boots and gloves, etc. He states that he exhibited this rifle, the fur boots and a painting at the Allentown, PA gunshow and then put everything away for about 20 yrs. He stated that he learned of Mr. Entrikin's vast photo and album collection at the Westchester Historical Society. Consignor apparently examined the Entrikin collection and discovered several pictures of Mr. Entrikin, in one of which he is depicted dressed in furs head to toe, holding this exact rifle, a copy of which accompanies this lot. The rifle is readily identifiable in the photo with the sling on the stock and the walrus ivory repair in the toe of the stock. This and another photo of Mr. Entrikin, dressed in seal skin garment, are obviously studio shots from the Taylor Studio in Chester, PA. Another small photo which accompanies, depicts a man in furs, probably Mr. Entrikin with 2 dead walrus and this rifle leaning against one of them. The collection also contained numerous other photos of Mr. Entrikin, his companions on the expedition, the boat they used and numerous other views and drawings. There can be absolutely no doubt that this rifle was the exact same one used by Mr. Entrikin on his Arctic explorations. That it survived at all is in itself, a miracle and that it survived with orig sling and with any orig finish at all is even a greater miracle. PROVENANCE: Samuel J. Entrikin; Gun dealer George Gorman. CONDITION: Very good. Traces of blue remain in the most sheltered areas being mostly a dark plummy blue/brown patina with an area of rust on the magazine tube just above the forend cap. Receiver retains traces of orig case colors being mostly silver to brown patina. Lever, hammer & buttplate are a brown patina. The stock has the aforementioned repair, otherwise wood is sound with old nicks, scratches and dings and retains a hand worn patina. Mechanics are fine. Strong, bright bore, a little frosty in the grooves. Gloves show use but are still soft and supple with most of its hair still attached and solid linings. Seal skin boots are dry and crackled with a few bug holds and loss of fur. One boot has a hole in the front center. Wooly boots are fairly soft with a broken strap or two and retain most of their orig fur. Snow shoes are solid with the one leather shoe holder dry and crackled with broken straps. Painting is fine with light soil, frame has loose corners. 4-48696, 48697 JR154