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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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