Just posted to the LC Smith Collectors site ....
If there are people who regularly read this forum who noticed that 3 "High Grade LC Smith's" were pulled from the Julia's auction yesterday ..... and wondered what happened .... here is the "Real Story" !!!
I personally had interest in one of these guns and had discussed it at length with Tom Archer many times leading up to the auction. Tom had in the past told me a story of just such a gun that Cliff White had shared with him years ago. Cliff had the opportunity to buy 5 guns in the early 80's and one gun stood out because of a hunter depicted in gold on one of the locks. Cliff had passed because of the possibility/probability of the guns having been stolen due to something that had happened in his, then recent history. Only 3 of the 5 guns were LC Smith's ....... all high grade guns.
Last week, Tom called Cliff to jog his memory about the long forgotten story and when asked Cliff remembered the event, as well as the guns and assured Tom he had the serial numbers somewhere in his old records ..... Tom suggested I contact Cliff and see if in fact these serial numbers matched the gun/guns in the auction ...... THEY DID !!!!!
I struggled with this new found information throughout the night, last Wednesday and decided that on Thursday morning, as not only an interested party in at least one of the guns, but as a sitting member of the BOD's it was my duty to inform Julia's of this possibility and determine if the integrity of ownership of these fine guns had been corrected in the nearly three decades of their absence from the double gun community.
IT HAD NOT .... and these 3 fine LC Smith's were still in the "Stolen Firearms Registry" !!!!
So the next time you think your club is "just a hobby fraternity" ...... remember that we as members can and will make a difference if we pay attention and put forth the effort. Theft and deception are not good for our hobby so we must always remain diligent !!!!
I would like to thank Tom Archer and Cliff White for their part and most of all Jim Julia for the professional manner in which he handled this unfortunate situation .... his company immediately contacted authorities and had the guns checked and once found to be stolen property, released them to local police for confiscation.
I know nothing of the current owner or consignor ..... but eventually someone was bound to be disappointed .... if the current owner was non complicit ... I am extremely sorry for their misfortune, if not then so be it !!!
Be Safe All, Jimmy Baker
