When Brian Lebel first told me how excited he was about the Annie Oakley collectibles that would be featured at his auction this year, I knew collectors would be in for a rare treat.
Oakley remains every much an icon today, as she was, 125 years ago, when she traveled across the Atlantic to land in London with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West troupe in March 1887. More than two-and-a-half million people came to see the show commemorate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee that June. The crowds loved Oakley; even Queen Victoria remarked to her, “You are a very, very clever little girl.”
This past June, collectors got the opportunity to bid on the sharpshooter’s firearms and photographs at not just one, but two major auctions—Heritage Auctions on June 10 in Dallas, Texas, and Brian Lebel’s Denver Old West on June 23 in Denver, Colorado.
“Annie Oakley continues to fascinate for many of the same reasons that captivated audiences in her own time,” says Dr. Paul Fees, the former, long-time curator for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. “She had come from extreme poverty. She was petite and pretty and always feminine, yet she beat men at their own game. She and Frank enjoyed a secure and very modern marriage. She was the star, and he the manager, but they were mutually supportive.”
The Oakley auction highlights featured on these pages include her “first real gun” and a rare arena shot of the sharpshooter in her heyday.
Photo Gallery
The summer before Annie Oakley sailed for England with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, she posed for this photograph at Anderson Studio in New York. The above cabinet card sold at Heritage Auctions for $2,800. A different cabinet card of the same image sold at Denver Old West for $2,250.
The sharpshooter holds a Model 1894 Winchester in this photo that she signed, on the back, “Annie Oakley as Nance Barry in The Western Girl,” a melodrama she starred in starting in 1902, one year after she retired from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Heritage Auctions sold the photo for a $14,000 bid.
Heritage Auctions sold a photo of Oakley giving shooting lessons to the pupils in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where she began working in 1915 ($4,750). Her husband, Frank Butler, squats behind her at the ammunition table.
Probably fewer than 10 copies exist of this A. Hoen & Co. lithograph showing Oakley decorated with her medals and shooting at glass balls in the background. Heritage Auctions sold the poster for a $20,000 bid. Shown center is one of her glass target balls that sold, along with her “Powders I Have Used” booklet, for a $1,200 bid at Denver Old West.
Although Oakley’s iconic weapon is the shotgun, these Marlin rifles owned and used by her are significant to collectors because she publicly endorsed Marlin’s repeaters, Fees says. Heritage Auctions sold the .22 caliber Model 1897 for $60,000 (top) and the .22 caliber Model 39 for $70,000.
From 12 yards away, Oakley shot five times through the heart of this target card that sold for a $12,000 bid at Heritage Auctions.
Fees told True West that if he had been purchasing an Oakley item for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, it would have been the stereocard ncluded in a lot of Wild West show photos that sold at Denver Old West for $1,300. “Photographs of her performing, especially during her heyday, are scarce,” he says.
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When Brian Lebel first told me how excited he was about the Annie Oakley collectibles that would be featured at his auction this year, I knew collectors would be in for a rare treat.
