AD TEXT COPYRIGHT CSA 2023
COPYRIGHT NOTICE : THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THIS OFFERING IS OWNED BY CRITTENDEN SCHMITT ARCHIVES AND IS OFFERED HERE BY CSA DBA CSAEOD.
MUCH MORE IN THE STORE !
IMPORTANT , HISTORICAL ORIGINAL COLT FACTORY DRAWING FOR COLT YACHT SIGNAL CANNON. HAS BEEN IN MY OFFICE FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS. UNIQUE AND ORIGINAL HAND DRAWING. LARGE. SEE YARDSTICK FOR SIZE.
If you are not
familiar with the collection of these drawings, they were saved from
destruction during WW2 when Colt decided to clear all the old paper out
of their attic due to their fear of fires set by enemy agents. I had
about 50 of the original drawings as well as a couple of hundred copies
of production blue prints for most of the Gatling guns. Which I sold years ago. The Dauntless drawing was the only non-Gatling gun image.
Many were signed and the others initialed by the artist. The entire lot came from a life long Colt employee who was tasked with cleaning out the papers. It included full size Gatling production drawings most of which have been sold to serious Gatling collectors and writers over the past 30+ years.
This one is
initialed just under the date. I researched these years ago and found
the names of most of the artists. If you are a serious scholar of such
stuff you can find the info. in Colt records.
I took slides of all of the original drawings and copies and plan to have the slides converted to a CD when I get to it.
Many of the best drawings were sold to a top Machine gun collector and
dealer named Curtis Earl from Phoenix Az. He had a beautiful original Gatling on
field carriage in his living room when I visited him in the late 1970s.
Caldwell Colt, an ill-fated, carousing playboy/yachtsman of the Gilded Age and sole surviving child of Sam and Elizabeth Colt, sailed the world before his mysterious death at sea on his yacht the DAUNTLESS, He was 36.
Caldwell, born in 1858, was smothered in attention and love, pampered by his mother and aunts. There was no financial limits for little Caldwell. His father, Sam, had officially become a millionaire in 1856, two years before the little prince was born.
Elizabeth, who was widowed when Sam died at age 47 in 1862, hoped Caldwell would eventually lead Colt's Armory triumphantly into the next generation, carrying on the industrious traditions of his father. In 1888, at 29, Caldwell was made a vice president of Colt's, a step Elizabeth hoped would lead to the continuation of the family reign.
The Hartford Daily Times -- a devoted friend of Sam Colt in his early battles with Hartford's establishment, which opposed vulgar manufacturing interests ( the established upper class looked down on businessmen as well as workers) -- rather prematurely praised Caldwell for his ``energy and executive ability'' while expressing the hope that ``his influence in promoting the prosperity of this great company will be great.''
Such would not be the case, as
Caldwell who
``became a stereotypical icon of foppish indulgence whose fame was earned by his courage and audacity as a celebrated yachtsman,'' co-curator William Hosley writes in his exhibition catalog, ``Colt: The Making of an American Legend.''
Caldwell focused his energies on sailing, hunting and gambling while basking in his reputation as a bold yachtsman, sportsman and bon vivant renowned for his lavish entertainments.
Caldwell had his first yacht at 18 and eventually owned five, including the famous Dauntless, once owned by Commodore James Gordon Bennett, the American newspaper baron. During Caldwell's lifetime, Hosley notes, ``he spent at least $250,000 (today $8.75 million) on yachts, equipage, and crews averaging an estimated 10 months a year sailing.''
Between
1881 and 1883, the devoted son and doting mother made the Grand Tour of
Europe so popular with affluent Americans, crossing the Mediterranean
aboard the Dauntless. Mother and son visited Spain, Italy, France and
Scandinavia, swooping up European decorative art treasures, which are mostly
now on display in museums.
In
1887, in one of the great trans-Atlantic races in American yachting
history, Caldwell pitted his Dauntless unsuccessfully against the
Coronet, wagering $10,000 he'd win. In what Hosley calls ``an almost
suicidal attempt to defeat the Coronet,'' Caldwell captained the
Dauntless ``through an ordeal in which the crew, driven night and day
through often terrible weather, ended up subsisting on champagne and
wine after their water supply was lost.'' The Coronet was a newer design which out classed the Dauntless.
John Schmitt CSA PO BOX 4002 COLESVILLE MD 20914.