The diversity of offerings on display at Preview Day Thursday will be breathtaking. Museum-worthy antiques from the Norman R. Blank Collection, presentation pieces, Wild West handguns, Class III firepower and more will be available in the May 17-19 Premier Auction.

Pristine to gritty, from beautiful to historic, and sometimes both at once, like the presidential sporting arms of President Gerald Ford, can be found among the nearly 2,100 lots in the auction that starts with a nod to the USA Shooting Team’s preparations for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Opening the auction will be a beautiful Angelo Bee engraved Krieghoff K-32 over/under shotgun to be sold with all proceeds going to the USA Shooting Team. Take a look at some of the immensely high-conditioned and historic pieces that will be available at auction in Bedford, Texas.

This fantastic Angelo Bee-engraved two-barrel set Krieghoff K-32 over/under shotgun being sold for the benefit of USA Shooting will be Lot 1 in the May Premier Auction that starts Friday.

Rolling Thunder

Five tanks are among the small curated grouping of military vehicles from the Allan Cors Collection, including a highly desirable World War 2 U.S. M3A1 Stuart light tank and a rare U.S. M41 Walker Bulldog.

The iconic U.S. M3A1 Stuart light tank is one of just 4,621 produced by American Car & Foundry and one of 22,750 total of M3 and M5 variants. The Stuart, the Bulldog, and a massive Swiss Centurion battle tank top the sampling of military vehicles available in the May Premier Auction. Along with the tanks, the offerings include support vehicles, an ambulance and military trucks from the United States, the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, Sweden and Switzerland.

Fantastic Firearms of the Norman R. Blank Collection

The Norman R. Blank Collection made quite a splash with its offerings in the December Premier Auction and look for that wave of interest to continue with more than 30 lots of classic and museum-worthy antique European pieces, with some from the collection of royals and nobility.

A double barrel flintlock sporting gun by French gunmaker Nicholas-Noel Boutet heads the lineup, but legendary gunmakers Alexander Henry, Durs Egg and John Manton are also represented among the stunning and high-condition items from the Blank Collection.

Historic Guns of the Greg Lampe Collection

Firearms from the Greg Lampe Collection are high condition and dripping with history, and the offerings in this auction are no different, led by a cased early production factory engraved Colt Model 1851 Navy handed down from a father to his son who served in the Confederate Engineer Corps, and a cased factory presentation Colt 1862 Police revolver from the Colt Factory to Henry Kellogg of the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company.

Other items from Lampe’s collection include Revolutionary War era flintlock pistols, a U.S. Colt Third Model Dragoon revolver with stock, a Colt Model 1878 double action revolver owned by Deadwood attorney John Burns and the Colt Single Action Army of outlaw Henry “The Flying Dutchman” Wagner.

Presidential Firearms

The guns of presidents always draw interest when they are made available, and this auction offers sporting arms from Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald R. Ford. President Gerald Ford helped heal the nation from the Watergate scandal as he led the United States in its bicentennial year when he was presented fine engraved sporting arms from Winchester, Browning and Ruger.

Ford received a spectacular engraved and gold inlaid Winchester Model 21 double barrel shotgun, a brilliant pair of factory engraved game scene pair of Browning Model 1885 single shot rifles and an impressive pair of factory engraved Ruger No. 1 Bicentennial single shot rifles. These guns are beautifully embellished with patriotic themes and heaping with presidential history, presented to the only president who served in the Oval Office without being elected.

This amazing array of firearms presented to President Gerald R. Ford during the U.S. Bicentennial Year of 1976 will be available in three lots: a presentation Winchester Model 21 double barrel shotgun, a presentation pair of Browning Model 1885 single shot rifles, and a presentation pair of Ruger No. 1 single shot rifles that all bear phenomenal engraving and gold inlays fitting of a presentation to a U.S. president.

Bidders will be impressed by a .70 caliber Hawken rifle that was among the guns at Theodore Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill and is said to have belonged to famous frontiersman Kit Carson. A more personal firearm is the Parker Brothers 20 gauge side-by-side shotgun, likely a gift from Theodore Roosevelt to his son Kermit. The Bull Moose instilled a love of hunting in Kermit who accompanied him on adventures in Africa and South America.

Presentation Firearms

Presentation pieces can often be breathtaking, and a stunning Le Page-Moutier flintlock shotgun is just that. More French masterpiece than field piece, it has a luxurious carved ebony stock and opulent ornamentation that include the hammers formed into dogs that each pounce on a fox when the gun is fired as well as magnificent vine and leaf engraving. French President Jules Grevy presented the shotgun to President Manuel Gonzales Flores of Mexico in 1879.

Recently discovered and documented, a factory engraved Winchester Model 1873 has a gold-plated receiver decorated with floral scrollwork and circular game scenes of a buffalo on the left and a moose on the right at the front of the receiver. Vignettes of an elk, leaping on the right, and standing majestically on the left harkens to the Ulrich engraving family and signals an outstanding presentation piece.

This amazing gold-plated Winchester Model 1873 with its circular game scenes was only recently discovered.

A magnificent Civil War era cased and engraved Colt Model 1860 with a blued cylinder and barrel, casehardened frame covered with vine and scroll embellishments and ebony carved grips that was owned by Huntington Wolcott, a tragic scion of the influential Wolcott family of Massachusetts.

Moving to the 20th century, a World War 2 Singer Model M1911A1 is an amazing piece that has rarity heaped atop rarity with only 500 of the firearms made by Singer, and this one without a serial number and bearing a nearly mirror polished “in the white” finish.

This stunning Singer M1911A1 has a brilliant “in the white” and has no serial number.

A pair of Winchester Model 1866 rifles are definitely worth noting. One was presented by Buffalo Bill Cody to Panther Bill in 1880 and the second was presented to a Peruvian military officer and politician from an American railroad builder.

Magnificent M1911 Pistols

The M1911 served on the winning side in two world wars and this auction has some fine representations that should make collectors sit up and pay attention. Beyond the incredible Singer that has already been mentioned, several variations that led to the 1911, including a 1902, 1905, an exceptionally rare Model U.S. Trials 1907 and an even rarer Model 1910 chambered for 9.8mm can be found in the auction catalog.

Also available is a Union Switch & Signal 1911A1 issued to B-17 co-pilot Arthur C. “Bud” Stipe who flew in the “Bloody Hundredth” 100 Bombardment Group, the unit portrayed in the Apple TV+ show “Masters of the Air.” With its definite cool factor, a modern Colt Government Model upgraded by gunsmith Richard Heinie that appeared on the cover of “American Handgunner” magazine and served as a prop gun in an episode of “Miami Vice” guest starring Liam Neeson is also part of the auction.

Spectacular Sporting Arms

The May Premier offers an amazing selection of masterfully engraved shotguns from the finest companies like Purdey, Fabbri, Holland & Holland and Westley Richards.

Top of the class is a trio of Purdey shotguns with phenomenal game scene engravings by Master Engraver Simon Coggan surrounded by intricately beautiful scrollwork across the receiver. Another Purdey on offer has the fascinating artistry of French engraver Aristide Barre on display. Barre’s work shows meticulous floral scrolls interspersed with cherubs battling winged creatures on each side of the receiver and green man masks in several places on the coin-finish.

A Holloway & Naughton over/under shotgun should draw attention with its engraving by the Italian engraving firm of Creative Art and master engraver Dario Cortini. This gun is displayed on the Holloway & Naughton website as an example of the company’s work. The left side lockplate depicts a hawk taking on a ferret and the right has an owl descending on a hare. Both are excellent Bulino engraving. A pair of Goddess Diana-engraved Ivo Fabbri double barrel shotguns has scenes of Diana and her handmaidens hunting with dogs on the right and the Goddess and handmaidens at rest on the left as well as Diana and a hunting dog on the underside of the receiver.

Rampant Colt Revolvers

Among the impressive lineup of Colts in the auction are three lotted Colt Single Action Armies that found themselves at outposts of the Indian Wars. A Lot 6 Colt attributed to Capt. Myles Moylan is well documented and fresh to auction. Moylan was commander of Company A of the 7th Cavalry and a Medal of Honor winner. Moylan served with Custer at Gettysburg and in the 7th Cavalry in Major Marcus Reno’s battalion. He was part of the attack on the Native American village at Little Bighorn that was forced into retreat while taking heavy casualties. A rare and high condition Colt Single Action Army made in 1874 and issued from Lot 8 to the 8th Cavalry is also in the auction along with a first-year production Single Action Army that was likely issued to the 10th Cavalry.

A Colt Model 1860 Fluted Army shipped south of the Mason Dixon line ahead of the Civil War is included in the auction. Confederate Capt. William Conner of the Jeff Davis Legion who carried the revolver was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. The gun was part of a January 1861 shipment of 160 revolvers to Natchez, Miss. Conner was a plantation owner who was commissioned a lieutenant in the Jefferson Davis Legion who was promoted to major before arriving in Gettysburg where he was killed.

From the Mexican-American War, a B Company Colt Walker listed in “The Colt Whitneyville-Walker Pistol” by Lt. Col. Robert Whittington III is a highly desirable example. It is marked on the grip for Mexican Gen. Andres S. Viesca.

Confederate Capt. William Conner of the Jeff Davis Legion was killed in action on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Winning Winchesters

While some fine Winchester rifles have been previously mentioned, there are many outstanding examples available in the auction including a Model 1873 One of One Thousand that has been documented in the publication “The Story of the Winchester 1 of 1000 and 1 of 100 Rifles,” by Edmund Lewis, and James Gordon’s “Winchester New Model of 1873: A Tribute Volume II.”

Another Winchester featured in print is a deluxe factory-engraved Model 1866 with silver-plated finish that was illustrated and described in R.L. Wilson’s “Winchester Engraving.” An exhibition Winchester Deluxe Model 1890 slide action rifle with nickel and gold plating and factory engraving as well as two factory engraved Winchester Deluxe Model 1886 rifles with consecutive serial numbers will be on offer as well.

Lots 3013 and 3014 are consecutively serial numbered Winchester Deluxe Model 1886 rifles that are similarly embellished with checkering on the stock and game scene engraving. They are each chambered in .45-70.

Class III Firepower

At the head of the Class III offerings is a rare FN M240 general purpose machine gun with an extra barrel followed by a couple examples of the M60, the workhorse general purpose machine gun of the Vietnam War. They are joined by a Cadillac-Gage Stoner 63 select fire rifle, an Armalite AR-18 “shorty/carbine,” and several Thompson submachine guns.

Fine Firearms for Sale

Visit Rock Island Auction’s Bedford, Texas venue on May 16 to check out the amazing history and beauty that will be on display for preview day. Examine and admire fantastic items like the Le Page-Moutier double barrel shotgun, gold-plated Winchester Model 1873, embellished sporting arms, a progression of Colt pistols leading to the M1911, fabulous Colts and the guns of presidents. The three-day auction opens on May 17 with the auctioning of a fantastic engraved and gold inlaid Krieghoff K-32 shotgun to benefit USA Shooting.

This remarkable Winchester Model 1873 One of One Thousand has high condition, provenance and factory engraving.