Page 25 - 4091-BOOK3

LOT 3019
Historic Winchester Model 1866 Lever Action Rifle with Stock Inlay Featuring a
Presentation Inscription to Panther Bill from Buffalo Bill in 1880 from the Legendary
William M. Locke Collection - Serial no. 150741, 44 cal., 24 3/8 inch round bbl., blue finish,
walnut stock. This rifle was manufactured in 1879 and features a German silver blade front sight,
adjustable sporting rear sight, the two-line address and King’s improvement patent marking on top
ahead of the rear sight, “P” and the serial number in script on the lower tang, two small spots for a saddle ring staple,
blued forend cap, blued buttplate with empty stock compartment, matching number “35” on the stock and tang, “650” also
on the lower tang on the left, and smooth walnut forearm and buttstock with a copper badge shaped inlay on the left side of the
buttstock inscribed “SOUVENIR/A.D.W.L. LA SCOTT/PANTHER BILL/from/HON. W.F. CODY/BUFFALO BILL/1880” (year partially obscured by the lower pin). This rifle is featured on page 505 of “The William M. Locke Collection” (copy included) where it is described as “obtained from F. Theodore Dexter in March 1930 for $75.” The rifle was featured on the PBS series Antiques Road Show in Tulsa where it was appraised by J. Christopher Mitchell on July 23, 2011, for $150,000-$200,000 (some information included).
In 1880, William “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846-1917) was still a rising star and soon would be the most famous of the Old West showmen. By that time, he had already earned fame as a scout and hunter in the American West and had been a friend of “Wild Bill” Hickok and other legendary western gunslingers. He became a
folk hero in part due to Ned Buntline’s writings on Cody, including “Buffalo Bill: King of the Bordermen,” and soon Buffalo Bill had already begun to use his fame
to promote himself through stage acts, starting in 1872 along with “Texas Jack” Omohundro in “The Scouts of the Prairie” and then the following year in “Scouts of the Plains” alongside Texas Jack and Wild Bill. The next year he started another show,
the “Buffalo Bill Combination.” That act continued to tour until the founding of his better known and longer lasting
promotion: “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” in 1883. It was expanded a decade later to “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of
Rough Riders of the World,” and he toured the U.S. and Europe delighting innumerable fans. He later joined his act with Pawnee Bill’s Wild West show to form the short lived “Two Bills” show in 1908. By the time of his death, he was likely the most famous American on earth, and the use of Winchester by Cody and other performers helped solidify Winchester rifles’ legacy as the rifles of the Wild West, and his show was frequently referenced in firearms advertisements of
the period. Buffalo Bill is known to have presented a number of Winchester rifles to fans and friends. The identity of A.D.W.L. La Scott, nicknamed Panther Bill, is unknown. The nickname may have been given by Buffalo Bill to a fan
in 1880 rather than have been a man known by the nickname. There certainly have been a number of men to bear the moniker of Panther Bill, including multiple Native American men, but none we have found had the surname La Scott. William Comer “Panther Bill” Peek (1822-1901) is among the better known. He earned the nickname after killing a cougar by throwing an ax, and there are stories of another “Panther Bill” earning the name after being severely wounded by a cougar and then blasting the beast with his trusty firearm “Old Betsy.”
23