A few examples of appraisal values for
INDIAN RIVER TREE

• Pair of Nimschke-Style Engraved
  Pair of Nimschke-Style Engraved Smith & Wesson Model No.2 Revolvers Inscribed to D.B. Dyer .32 caliber RF 6'' octagonal barrels S/N 19189 S/N 17780. Nimschke-style engraving with nickel finish and pearl grips; both with custom pearl grips and contemporary hand-tooled Slim-Jim-style leather holsters. One gun originally cased in fancy rosewood box with brass corners and lined in maroon velvet lining. A near matching pair of the acclaimed rimfire No. 2 Army Smith & Wesson revolvers that first saw widespread service during the Civil War as a reliable personal weapon and later carried on the Western frontier by the likes of George Armstrong Custer and ?Wild Bill? Hickok. These guns were exquisitely engraved by the shop of superlative firearms engraver Louis D. Nimschke (1832-1904) and illustrate the perfect symmetry of his distinctive scrollwork design harmonious and masterfully executed albeit on the Smith and Wessons. Both pistols were originally cased in rosewood boxes and are identically inscribed ?D.B. Dyer? on the back strap. One gun bears the serial number 17780 and is confirmed by Jinks as having been made in 1864 and retailed by Smith & Wesson??Ts exclusive agent J.S. Storrs of New York City. The other pistol numbered 19189 was made slightly later and shows a variant pattern of Nimschke??Ts work on the frame barrel cylinder and butt strap. That both handsome pistols were once carried by Daniel B. Dyer (1849-1912) as a pair is evidenced by the matching black leather ''Slim Jim'' holsters custom-made with an identical flower-over-star pattern tooled into the leather with aesthetic reverse hook trigger guard. The right holster shows more wear than the left. Family recollection says that the Smith & Wessons were purchased by patriarch Captain George Randolph Dyer then serving as Quartermaster at Pilot Knob Missouri as a gift ??" possibly a birthday present ??" for his second son Daniel B. Dyer sometime after 1864. Parenthetically the family retains a gold cased pocket watch inscribed and presented to the older brother Captain George Dallas Dyer on the occasion of his 18th birthday in 1862 lending substance to gift story. Even though Daniel Dyer was a fifteen-year-old civilian he had been present at Fort Davidson ??" staying with his father ??" during the battle of Pilot Knob on September 27 1864 where Sterling Price sought to overwhelm the thin Federal defenses en route to St. Louis. Family history relates that young Daniel was captured at Pilot Knob and managed to escape after a few weeks. A plausible supposition is that Captain Dyer purchased the guns for his young son in recognition of that harrowing occasion. The pistols must certainly have accompanied Daniel Dyer to Baxter Springs Kansas in 1870 where he built a successful hardware and dry goods business in the sprawling cattle town. In 1880 Dyer took up a Federal appointment as Indian Agent at the newly created Quapaw Agency in the nearby Indian Territory. He had earlier accompanied General Sherman with William Cody as their scout to the Klamath Reservation in the Oregon Territory to relocate the remnants of the defeated Modoc tribe--about 165 men women and children held as prisoners of war--to the distant Oklahoma reservation. It is thought that during this time D. B. Dyer and the flamboyant plainsman who would be regaled as ''Buffalo Bill'' became lifelong friends and business associates. The Dyers moved to the Darlington Agency in 1884 near the newly constructed Fort Reno and walked into the middle of a simmering dispute between the restive Cheyenne and Arapaho bands and local cattlemen. The ranchers had purchased limited and cheap grazing rights on the reservation that provided income for the tribes but now began to encroach directly on Indian camps. Rejecting Dyer??Ts officious demands that they take up farming the hungry Indians began to steal cattle causing the angry ranchers to clamor for army intervention. Brow-beaten by the whites arrayed against them the Cheyenne led by the Dog Soldier faction grew surely and aggressive and ?threatened to go on the warpath.? The whites at the Darlington Agency immediately fled to safety of nearby Fort Reno while the Indians watched the darkened Dyer homestead for signs of the despised Indian Agent. Dyer only survived the incident thanks to a friendly half-breed who had convinced the cautious warriors that Dyer had ?already gone to the fort.? Unquestionably the pair of Smith and Wesson??Ts were cocked and ready as the Dyer family remained secreted until the cavalry came to the rescue. By the summer of 1885 Dyer??Ts days as an government Indian Agent were over. Dyer moved to Kansas City Missouri where he and a partner engaged in the real estate business reaping significant wealth and social status in relatively short order. The Dyers had brought with them a massive collection of Indian artifacts from the Darlington Agency ??" then regarded as little more than curiosities ??" which was displayed at the National Agricultural Exhibition in Kansas City in 1887. Today the Dyer collection is held ??" but not displayed ??" by the Kansas City Museum and is said to be the largest collection of period Cheyenne-Arapaho artifacts in the world. Lured to the newly opened Oklahoma Territory in 1887 by the prospect of fresh business opportunities Dyer dabbled briefly in territorial politics and was elected the first mayor of Guthrie Oklahoma before abruptly returning to Kansas City. Dyer had caught wind of a more promising venture in Augusta Georgia. Having lined up investors and secured capital he moved to Augusta in 1890 and quickly chartered the Augusta Street Railway Company. Financial reward was immediate and Dyer would go on to successfully parlay his railroad company into a multitude of holdings that included utilities real estate and the venerable Augusta Chronicle newspaper. Dyer soon commissioned an opulent twenty-seven room mansion in Augusta he named ?Château Le Vert? and thereafter alternated between his Georgia estate and the 41 acre river front manor in Kansas City called ?Clarendon.? In 1911 Dyer sold all of his Augusta interests and returned to Kansas City Missouri. On December 23 1912 at age sixty-two Daniel Dyer died of pneumonia. Woven into the rich tapestry draping the Gilded Age of Industrialists is the illustrious Daniel B. Dyer ??" a Captain of Industry. In describing his life??Ts success Dyer preferred a baseball metaphor stating matter-of-factly: ?Business is like playing baseball. I??Tve been lucky in hitting the ball.? He was brought back to the home of his father in Joliet Illinois where he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery the pair of Smith and Wesson??Ts a lasting legacy of his frontier roots and successful ascendancy in the West. Along with the pistols is a large cross section of intriguing ephemera ??"newspaper clippings letters pamphlets genealogy and photography??"relating to D.B. Dyer??Ts eminent life as a business mogul and respected philanthropist during the Gilded Age. The paper reflects Dyer??Ts privileged status during the last decade of his life and touches upon some of personal relationships he cemented with similarly high profile individuals including the American icon ?Buffalo Bill? Cody. Born on his father's rustic farm near Plainfield Illinois on March 21 1849 Dyer as a successful man expended considerable energy in documenting the extensive genealogy of his long and illustrious family tree an impulse not lost on his survivors who likewise compiled several files of florid newspaper clippings and printed obituaries after their patriarch??Ts demise and funeral in 1912. There are twelve different cabinet cards of the heavily bearded Dyer ranging from 1884 through at least 1911; all are obligatory formal poses mostly by Augusta photographers. Three of the portraits show the regal Major Dyer wearing a Georgia National Guard dress uniform GAR medals and presentation sword. From a historical perspective the most interesting photograph is the portrait of a younger D.B. in civilian suit wonderfully inked on verso ?D.B. Dyer/US Indian Agent/Cheyenne and Arapaho/Agency. I.T./May 2. 1884? with Kansas City MO imprint. Mrs. Ida Dyer??Ts later frontier classic Fort Reno does not even include her then-husband??Ts photograph from his time as Indian Agent. Two more photographs depict showman extraordinaire William Cody. One is an undated picture of the ubiquitous ?Buffalo Bill? and D.B. Dyer standing side-by-side ??" looking like twin brothers ??" with matching moustaches and goatees now aged silver-white. The other is a glossy contemporary print of Cody mounted in full regalia a later 20th century copy of an original photograph made up with a fabricated autograph by ?Buffalo Bill? to ?Col. Dyer dated Arizona Feb. 26 1911.? The extensive ephemera consists of fifty-eight large file folders dated 1898-1912 each tab having a brief handwritten description of the generally sparse contents contained therein. Twelve more folders are undated and comprise otherwise uncategorized drafts notes inventories clippings and letters. Among the most interesting material is a highly collectable engraved $1000 gold bond certificate for the Augusta Railway Company an interurban founded by Dyer in 1890 as his first business venture in that city. This fine example of scripophily is printed in rust and black with fabulous graphics the uncut document measuring 21 x 17 in. unfolded retaining all of the redeemable coupons. Dated February 1911 is a typed two page communication on the business letterhead of the Edison Storage Battery Company informing D.B. Dyer that ?converting existing carriages and wagons into electric vehicles? is ?impossible to carry??| into effect? from a cost standpoint. The iconic inventor Thomas A. Edison is listed as ?Company President.? From Mrs. William F. Cody and family is an actual black bordered death notice still in its original envelope dated January 16 1917 addressed to Miss Mabel E. Green a niece of D.B. Dyer. Also a large file relating to ?Buffalo Bill??Ts? gift in 1912 of his ?old Deadwood coach? to the local Kansas City Missouri DAR chapter. Two typed letters dated July 1911 (one a typed transcription of an original hand written letter) on the colorful heading of William F. Cody??Ts Campo Bonito Mining & Milling Company in which D.B. Dyer responds to Lieutenant jg. Robert. L. Ghormley USN giving the officer formal permission to marry his favorite niece Lucile Lyon. Vice Admiral Ghormley USN (1883-1958) later took command of SOPAC in April 1942 and planned the initial operation at Guadalcanal during the early days of World War Two. Another folder contains Daniel B. Dyer??Ts official paperwork related to his 1889 membership in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) a prestigious post-war organization populated exclusively by successful Civil War veterans and their male offspring. Lastly a selection of poems and illustrations by an obscure artist named Frank C. Roberts (1861-after 1924) that appears to have descended by marriage. The handwritten collection is bound in a modern folder (1997) and lists nineteen pieces of verse on a contents page written between 1895 and 1897 in Kansas City and Chicago. Frank Roberts is a virtual unknown who seems to have specialized in ?outdoor verse ? particularly ?the wild but restful forests of Canada? according to the only reference found on the Internet. Descended Directly in the Dyer Family Condition: Both revolvers have been lightly cleaned. Still retain some of the original nickel finish. Case is in excellent condition. Holsters show wear and use but are in excellent condition. Paper documents and photographs showing expected age and minor handling wear else undamaged.
• Engraved Powder Horn Moses Walcut
  Engraved Powder Horn Moses Walcut 14'' length engrailed edge with a 3.5'' smooth spout and a notched surface around the opening. A domed wood base with a brass eye in the base. Engraved with the British coat of arms with highlighting behind the guardians and shield ending with another royal lion standing atop the crown. Engravings of soldiers birds animals trees including a winged griffon with large pointed teeth. Engraved Moses Walcut Horns Made At Fort EDW 1758. 1758 is engraved behind the soldiers. This well documented horn is featured in Jim Dresslar's The Engraved Powder Horn book on pages 28 & 29 in which Private Walcut's military service is summarized: drafted out of the 5th Connecticut Regiment of Militia served 15 days in the 1757 campaign in Capt Rudd's Connecticut Militia in relief of Fort William Henry. Walcut later served in Col. Fitch's 3rd Connecticut Regiment from April 13 to November 20 the entire 1758 campaign. During the French & Indian War Fort Edward was a key strategic military post on the east bank of the upper Hudson River the center of a frontier war zone known in lore as the ''The Great Carrying Place.'' Ft. Edward was constructed in 1755 on the site of an earlier French post and was improved during 1755-56 as an expansive three bastion Vauban-style fort made of stone surrounded by a dry moat. Opposite the fort was Rogers Island the base camp of the famous green-clad Rogers Rangers who made their reputation mimicking native tactics during the French and Indian War. The garrison was heavily reinforced in August-September 1757 following the loss of Ft. William Henry (the French burned it) and the horrendous massacre that occurred at the base of Lake George. As the tide of war slowly turned in favor of the British Fort Edward served as the major staging area and depot for Major General Jeffery Amherst's British Army during his ultimately successful invasion of Canada in 1759-60. Condition: The horn has a nice white-to-yellow patina. There is a small chip at the base where Fort Edward is engraved. This is an outstanding French and Indian War engraved powder horn.
• Important 19th century Georgia map,
  Important 19th century Georgia map, “Map of the State of Georgia, Prepared from actual Surveys and other Documents for Eleazer Early,” by Daniel Sturges (c.1765-1823), engraved by Samuel Harrison, 1818, four-quadrant map separated into fifty 5-3/4 x 9 in. panels, showing 39 counties in Georgia, Indian territories and villages, roads, towns, military outposts, rivers, swamps, ridges, and portions of modern day South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida, 1 inch to 8 mile scale, statistical table for 39 counties and three Indian territories showing the area, median length and breadth, population, and “Seat of Justice,” also includes other reference and geographical information, “Published and Sold By Eleazer Early Savannah Georgia, and By John Melish and Samuel Harrison Philadelphia” lower center, “Entered According to Act of Congress by Eleazer Early Proprietor” and “Engraved by Saml. Harrison 1818” lower right, vignette at top with classical figures holding spear, wheat sheaf, tree branch, the Georgia great seal, with sailing ship in background, county boundaries outlined in color, on wove paper, inscribed “Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia” in brown ink on mounting, 46-1/2 x 58-1/2 in. (page); accompanied by photocopy of 1967 Parke-Bernet catalog listing for map and hand-written label. Sewn and laid down on linen backing with marbled fore paper verso, panels with toning, scattered foxing, fading, smudges, soiling, minor corner loss, one panel in title margin with 1/4 x 1/4 in. corner loss, linen hinged to acidic card, stains and mildew, creases with separations, inscription with fading and stains. By tradition, said to have been used by the Marquis De Lafayette on his 1825 tour of Georgia; “The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter,” Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc. New York, April, 1967 (Parke-Bernet Gallery notes indicate it was purchased from Montagu Hankin, 1942); purchased by consigner’s father circa 1970. Private Collection.
• An Antique Indian Manuscript
  An Antique Indian Manuscript Illumination. Meticulously painted in polychrome pigments with tile accents depicting a prince and princess in a central rectangle with ornamental borders outside of which are pictorial borders on three sides with farm scenes cranes in a lake peacocks a woman making an offering to a holy man trees rivers buildings mountains hunting scenes and distant cities. The verso with calligraphy not framed measures apprx. 13-1/2" x 8-1/2".