Lot #8031

[Samuel Colt] Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt: A Memorial - Rare First Edition Book (1866)

Description

A Lavish Memorial to the American Icon of Industry and Invention

Rare first edition book: Armsmear: The Home, the Arm, and the Armory of Samuel Colt. A Memorial. Edited by Henry Barnard. First edition. NY: [Alvord, Printer], 1866. Quarto, publisher's full green morocco gilt, with raised bands and marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, 8 x 10.5, 399 pages, profusely illustrated with over 80 steel-engraved maps and illustrations, and a marvelous frontispiece portrait of Colt bearing his preprinted facsimile signature. Book condition: VG-/None, with light scattered marks and scuffing to boards, worn corners, and a chip to the head of the spine.

Commissioned by Colt’s widow, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, and privately published shortly after his death, Armsmear is more than a biography—it is a visual and textual monument to Colt’s enduring impact on American industry and innovation. For collectors, historians, and institutions, it remains an indispensable primary source and one of the finest 19th-century illustrated books of its kind.

Auction Info

• Auction Title: Old West, Outlaws, Lawmen, and Gangsters
• Dates: #720 - Ended 05/22/2025