Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Herb Houze

Collectors of America” was next in line for the American arms collecting world. This also short-lived monthly published in Marshalltown, Iowa ended with its fifth issue in July of that same year. It was the first of many equally transitory literary productions of F. Theodore Dexter whose name appears on the masthead. An intriguing fellow who deserves much recognition for the major role he played in the development of early arms collecting in America. “Dex,” as he was more familiarly known, in 1923 earned his basic living in that small Iowa town playing piano in a movie house to accompany the silent films then in vogue. Eventually becoming a well-known, respected antique arms dealer, Dexter took pride over the years in advertising that he was a “commission dealer,” i.e. preferring to handle fine antique weapons on a consignment basis rather than purchasing them outright. He maintained a high profile in the antique arms field for approximately three decades, the 1930s through 1960s. Operating primarily from Topeka, Kansas, he was the creative spirit behind many antique arms catalogs published under the guise of journals such as Dexters Antique Weapon Trade Journal in 1929, which featured a number of then prominent antique arms collections that Dexter sold on consignment for the owners. Subsequent sales catalogs, issued 1933-34 under the appearance of “journal” named Arms Reference Club of America (ARCA) were later changed to “ARCA ARMS REVIEW.” Other name changes followed erratically over ensuing years until October 1940; two later catalogs/journals in the early 1950s were equally short-lived. Although those publishing ventures may have had a rocky track record, they are not to be demeaned. They enjoyed a popular following and exerted considerable influence on the early American collecting market while equally credited with disseminating much valuable information. During the era Dexter issued those periodicals, he was also publishing a profusion of lists of illustrated antique firearms for sale.

      November, 1939 witnessed the first issue of an antique arms journal that many consider to have pioneered the more scholarly articles of this hobby; the first to bear the name The Gun Report. Its large 8x12 format and four-column print made for a healthy measure of information. Each issue was accompanied by an inserted, smaller sized four-page monograph featuring a specific model of antique firearm. Published monthly in Akron, Ohio it lasted through April 1942. The very earliest conspicuous stirrings of the American arms collecting world are evidenced through the many advertisements, as well as the cross-section of articles contained in those issues. Of special note among those ads was that for the first edition of Charles E. Chapel’s The Gun Collectors Handbook of Values, the notable, initial work to attempt to catalog all American antique firearms. A popular book, it enjoyed numerous editions through to the 1970s. The advertisements by many early antique arms dealers, who were soon to become the very backbone of the hobby, make equally interesting reading these many years later.

      Next on the horizon, shortly following WWII and reflecting the initial rumblings of heightened interest in collecting antique arms was the noteworthy Gun Collectors Letter of October 10, 1946. Its first few issues were merely four-page brochures issued twice monthly. Quickly changing to monthly and growing in size, its name was shortened in December 1947 to merely The Gun Collector. Published in Madison, Wisconsin under the editorship of the knowledgeable collector and researcher G. Charter Harrison, Jr., it enjoyed a longer run than its predecessors. But, like them, it too was unable to find sufficient financial support to survive. Although growing in size and significance of contents, it soon changed to a bi-monthly, its issuance becoming increasingly sporadic until it was discontinued in 1953 with issue no. 48 to the dismay of American collectors. The gap left by that worthy publication did not go unnoticed by the collecting world, then experiencing its first substantial outward growing pains. The wealth of conscientiously researched articles, authored by some of the most well-known and creditable names in American arms collecting, brought home the awakened, critical need for such a publication. The Gun Collector continues to make absorbing and constructive reading; many of the articles in those issues are yet cited by collectors and authors of present day, or have proved to be the basis for numerous later scholarly studies.

      With that checkered track record of defunct journals, collectors in the burgeoning hobby were at a loss for circulating newly completed studies on antique arms or even communicating easily and continuously among themselves. Except for a few sporadically appearing articles on historic firearms in the National Rifle Association’s American Rifleman and occasional articles in The Texas Gun Collector (journal of the Texas Gun Collectors Association; inaugurated August, 1950 and devoted primarily to their organizational affairs) there was a distressing absence of a regularly issued trade journal. Talk of such need was widely prevalent, with the collecting world rife with rumors. Yet, no one leaped into the breach in the two year interim following departure of the The Gun Collector. The time could not have been more propitious for Kenneth Liggett, an enthusiastic arms collector and advertising manager of his local Aledo, Illinois newspaper to step up to the plate. Acutely aware of the pressing need and recognizing the potential for such a journal, he established a newly renamed Gun Report, printing its first monthly issue June 1955, one and the same that celebrated its 50th anniversary of continuous printing in 2005. It continues to the present with well over 600 editions already to its credit and still going strong.

      Two other creditable periodicals added substantially to the lore of American antique arms collecting in the years since inception of The Gun Report, offering that venerable publication but the slightest competition. The American Arms Collector, published by the Collectors Press in Towson, Maryland sustained a very short run of but eight issues between January, 1957 and October, 1958 while the Arms Gazette, published in Los Angeles, California enjoyed greater success in its seven-year run from 1973 to 1980. Both of those periodicals added significantly to this field of American arms collecting; many of their articles are regarded worthy of reference to present day.

      Perhaps the growth of antique arms collecting as a hobby and the popularity of the guns themselves are best evidenced by the fact that it now supports two long-lived periodicals devoted entirely to the subject. With the establishment of Man at Arms by Andrew Mowbray in Rhode Island and the issuance in January, 1979 of the first edition of that monthly magazine, the collecting world has since been favored with two equally important, long-lived and widely read, regularly-issued authoritative journals.

      Other privately published periodicals have also added significantly to the literature of arms collecting and continue to do so. Journals and bulletins such as those issued by the American Society of Arms Collectors, the Kentucky Rifle Association and the Monthly Bugle of the Pennsylvania Antique Gun Collectors Association as well as those by Colt and Remington arms collectors organizations (and other similar specialty societies) regularly contribute important articles regarding their various fields of concentration. Such publications however are limited in their circulation, usually restricted to their membership. The proliferation of such material further evidences the vastly increasing interest in the broad field of antique American firearms.

       OLD GUN CATALOGS ARE NOT TO BE OVERLOOKED!

      With the advent of the computer age, the proliferation of elegantly compiled, magnificently color-illustrated catalogs of antique firearms (issued almost exclusively by auction galleries) has been astounding! Quite a few are deserving of a permanent place on the arms student’s shelf, particularly those that include noteworthy collections devoted to a specialized field such as the arms of an individual maker, or perhaps a specific category of firearm (e.g. military carbines, etc.), both of which often include scarce or rare variants seldom seen or mentioned in the usual published references. Such catalogs often serve as a valid source for factual data and manufacturing minutiae that are part and parcel of collecting. Although pre-computer age catalogs often fall short quality-wise when placed alongside those currently in vogue, many remain significant references, while others have achieved collectible status in their own right. Among more notable examples is that issued in 1973 of a conspicuously prominent American firearms collection, particularly renowned for its selection of Colt revolvers and longarms. The handsome 541-page, copiously illustrated (black and white), hard cover catalog The William M. Locke Collection (Biblio. Chap IV) serves not merely as a souvenir of the disposition of those many hundreds of superb firearms, but continues to serve as a source for research. Among other examples worthy of mention is the 1980 Catalog of the Karl F. Moldenhauer Collection of Remington Arms (Biblio.