SCARCE MAIN & WINCHESTER MAKER MARKED SAN
FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA SLIM JIM HOLSTER – FOR A COLT NAVY
OR ARMY PISTOL – VERY NICE SPECIMEN:
This is a very attractive
specimen of a scarce early production Main and
Winchester Slim Jim Holster, manufactured at the firm’s
San Francisco Saddlery. Made for a full sized Colt Army
or Navy Model Revolver with a fully legible maker’s
mark, this is a very good specimen of Main and
Winchester’s early holsters.
Charley Main and Ezra H. Winchester established their
saddlery company in San Francisco, California, in 1849,
concurrent with the discovery of gold at John Sutter’s
mill, and they found a ready market in those who flocked
to the California Gold Rush.
The Main and Winchester maker’s stamp is present on the
belt loop, and while showing some surface buffing
commensurate with the age of the holster, the stamp is
still fully legible.
Measuring 11” long and 4” at the widest extremity of the
trigger guard swell; this holster has survived in very
good condition. It features a detailed carved design,
accented with stamped highlights, which fully covers the
top two-thirds of both the front and reverse of the
holster body. The style of the design and the use of
carved decoration appears to be a standard feature of
the Main & Winchester holsters of this period. The
profile incorporates a triple-recurve throat, and there
is no evidence of stitching holes where this holster was
ever fitted with a barrel plug. Many of the surviving
Main and Winchester Slim Jim holsters incorporate both
of these features – the triple-recurve throat and the
lack of a toe plug – indicative that these were
signature features of their holsters. There is a single
hole at the bottom of the body fold where a tie down
thong would have been laced through.
The holster is full form with all the seams fully
intact. The leather is firm, not weakened from wear or
oil soaking, and the holster holds it full shape. The
leather retains a bright shiny surface with no surface
loss and no significant scuffing, and only some very
minor wear to the rear edge of the throat where the
front edge of the cylinder would have caught against the
edge of the throat when the pistol was returned to the
holster.
This holster will fit either a Model 1851 Colt Navy or a
Model 1860 Colt Army, however the Colt Navy seems to fit
just a bit better and from all appearances, during its
period of use this holster likely molded around a Colt
Navy - one of the favored pistols on the early gold
fields.
This is a very attractive holster, legibly maker marked
from a famous Barbary Coast saddlery, established in San
Francisco at the same time John Sutter’s discovery of
gold in his mill traces was being announced to the
nation, and it would be an excellent addition to a Gold
Rush display, especially paired with an early Colt Navy
Revolver.
(0121) $2200
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