The Next Collectible
On April 13, 2018, Rock Island Auction Company (RIAC) opened bidding on a storied Colt single-action revolver from 1847. Known as a Colt Walker, the gun was designed by Samuel Colt in collaboration with a Texas Ranger named Samuel Hamilton Walker, who served with Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott in the Mexican-American War. An unruly bull of a pistol designed to be carried in a saddle-mounted holster, the Walker revived Colt’s failing firearms company and changed the course of American history, remaining the most powerful repeating handgun for nearly a century. This particular specimen was exceptionally rare—one of fewer than a hundred such pistols produced for the
