Product Details
FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN-DOYLE
COLT, USA
A .38 (RIMLESS SMOKELESS) SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL, MODEL '1902 MILITARY', serial no. 38109,
for 1915/16, with 6in. blued barrel, blued slide marked with the maker's details and 'AUTOMATIC COLT, CALIBRE 38 RIMLESS SMOKELESS', period London proofs, blued frame marked 'J.J.' above the trigger on the right hand side indicating retail by the London Armoury Company, good replacement chequered hard rubber grips, lanyard swivel at heel, missing its detachable magazine, the whole expertly refinished to an extremely high standard throughout.
Other Notes: we are gratefully indebted to armsresearch.co.uk for allowing us to reproduce part of an article published by them in 2012 on Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's pistols.
"A number of years ago I purchased, through another dealer, the contents of a safe deposit box which had belonged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the box contained a .476 WG Model 1892 Army revolver and a .38 Colt M1902 military model pistol. The pistols had been left with Doyle's London solicitors in 1921 when the Firearms Act first became law. It appeared Sir Arthur did not trust the authorities. The pistols were stored in the solicitors safe deposit box and appear to have been forgotten when he died in 1930. It was only when a rationalization of the various deposits was undertaken in 1974 that the weapons were found and sold.
The Webley WG revolver was retailed by the Army & Navy Co-op Stores Ltd. and so engraved on the rib of the barrel. Researching though the ANCSL records I discovered that it had been sold on the 8th March 1893 to J. F. I. H. Doyle R.A. (Royal Artillery), subsequent research into the Army Lists revealing his name to be John Francis Innes Hay Doyle. My search next turned to the Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, where I discovered that Arthur had a younger brother, named John Francis Innes Hay Doyle, known as Innes. The two brothers were very close and shared a residence together at Southsea near Portsmouth between 1882 and 1885. Later in 1894, when Arthur's books had made him famous, the brothers toured the U.S.A. where Arthur lectured and read from his own works, rather as Dickens had done twenty five years before.
During the South African War, Arthur volunteered his medical services and went to Bloemfontein where he helped to look after the British soldiers during a typhoid epidemic. It was during this time that he found time to write his book "The Great Boer War".
Innes Doyle rose to be a Brigadier General. He served in China in 1900, the South African War in 1902, with operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, served in WW1, was mentioned in Despatches on four occasions and was awarded the C.M.G. and D.S.O. He died on 19th February 1919 and is buried near Brussels.
The Colt Model 1902 was shipped circa 1915; it had original London Proof marks and also stamped "JJ" on the right side of the frame above the trigger guard. The use of the "JJ" stamp indicates retail sale by the London Armoury Company. It is not thought the records of the L.A.C. still exist, so I could not confirm who originally purchased the Colt.
It is not known when Arthur acquired the two pistols; possibly they were part of Innes' effects returned to his widow, Clara, who passed them on to Arthur. Both pistols showed the hard work they had done, they had been much carried and little original blue remained, this would possibly indicate their use by Innes for much of their working life, remembering he served both in China and South Africa as well as in France. It is interesting to consider that Arthur would have seen and no doubt handled both at the time he was writing the Sherlock Holmes novels."
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Estimate £4,000-6,000 € 4,439-6,658
S5 - Sold as a Section 5 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act, Sections 7.3 and 7.1 Eligible
Unless prior arrangement has been made, two weeks after the Sealed bid sale, all Section 5 (and Section 7.1 / 7.3) items will be moved to a Section 5 carriers where storage charges will be incurred.
Goods will not be released until all outstanding charges have been met. Collection will be by arrangement.