The cultural phenomenon around American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that began thanks to Lin Manuel-Miranda’s now iconic 2015 musical shows no signs of waning – and it could drive up the price when a pair of dueling pistols owned by the statesman come to auction later this month.
The matched pistols, which are estimated to be valued at around $500,000, were personal possessions of Hamilton. Both have his initials “A.H.” engraved on the mounts and are purported to be dated to the six years between July 1798 and July 1804, when Hamilton was killed in a duel by longtime rival Aaron Burr. The pair, which will be included in Christie’s annual Important Americana auction in New York City’s Rockefeller Center on January 18 and 19, are one of only two known surviving pistol pairs that belonged to Hamilton, who was the first treasury secretary of the United States.
“These pistols were among Hamilton’s most personal possessions,” Christie’s Americana specialist Martha Willoughby told Barrons. “This is a rare opportunity for a collector to acquire national treasures that evoke the pulse of the new American nation.”
Hamilton’s Pocket Pistols
Known as pocket pistols or pistolets du voyage, the flintlock pistols were made in France by Jean-Louis Jalabert and are engraved with “Jalabert-Lamotte” on the lock plates, with Lamotte being Jalabert’s wife, Marie-Anne Lamotte. Pistols such as these were typically made to be carried easily in a man’s coat pocket, and each has a barrel that is just 4.75 inches long.
“Their fine craftsmanship and French origins would have been of particular appeal to Hamilton, who appreciated artistic excellence and whose house, the Grange, featured a number of furnishings in the French taste,” the auction house said in a news release.
The provenance of the pistols has been well documented, and according to Christie’s, following Hamilton’s untimely death, the pair of pistols remained in the family until his great-great-grandson Schuyler Van Cortlandt Hamilton sold them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1950. The pistols were on display at the museum from 1956 until 1972. It is unclear when the museum deaccessioned the items.
While owned by Hamilton later in his life, these are not the infamous guns used by Hamilton when he was killed in his 1804 duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, as those belong to JPMorgan Chase and are housed in its New York City headquarters.
Another Pair of Pistols Sold For More Than $1 Million!
It could be argued that Hamilton – who appears on the $10 bill – may have been quite the gun collector. Another pair of antique pistols owned by the statesman sold at auction for $1 million in 2021 – and when the 15% buyer’s premium was tacked on drove up the price to a cool $1.15 million.
Yet, that final gavel price was actually on the low end of the estimates, and it was originally speculated that the provenance might have been enough for the pistols to reach $3.5 million or more. That pair of weapons was believed to have been carried by Hamilton while he served with General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.
Prior to the 2021 sale, Rock Island Auction Company said there was good reason to believe that General Hamilton carried the pistols at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia in 1781 – the decisive victory that ensured America’s independence from Great Britain. The pistols had reportedly been given to Hamilton by his father-in-law Philip Schuyler, who had used them in the French and Indian War. The pistols had been passed down to Hamilton’s son and remained in the family until 1942 when they were sold to private collector Robert Abels.
With auctions, it often just takes two seriously determined buyers with deep pockets for prices to exceed pre-sale estimates.
