Ready, aim, fire: Rare antique guns come to auction
Set your sights on the late Don Blyth’s 80-year firearm collection
The Don Blyth Firearms Collection comes to Miller & Miller on October 9.
The late Don Blyth, along with his wife Joyce, spent decades amassing an important collection of Canadiana and Sporting items, while simultaneously unearthing the tales of the craftsmen and merchants behind the objects. Coming to auction at Miller & Miller on October 9th is Don’s collection of antique firearms, a rare assortment of handcrafted guns that demonstrate the true ‘scope’ of talent and ingenuity amongst Ontario’s earliest gunsmiths.
Don Blyth’s collection of rare antique firearms will sell at Miller & Miller on October 9th as part of the Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana sale.
During the second world war, Canada initiated a gun registry that would become the treasure map to Don’s rarest firearms. The registry required all firearms to be officially documented in the RCMP’s files. This was a covert method of ensuring weapons remained only in the ‘right’ hands as xenophobia soared across the country. This call-to-action prompted ancestors of early Canadian settlers to come forward with their unique heirloom firearms and thereby resulted in the unintentional creation of a fascinating and unprecedented historical archive. But information is merely data, unless it is used to one's advantage. Enter Don Blyth.
As a young man in the 1940s, Don Blyth had the mind of a sleuth, and the ‘sickness’ of a crazed collector. He learned about the gun registry and became determined to track down as many of these heirloom weapons as he could. The hunt was on. In an interview conducted by Miller & Miller three days before his death, Don recalled the thrill on the first day of his unique pursuit. “I think I got about 13 or 14 guns that day. They were 50 cents, a dollar, two dollars, five dollars sort of thing”. As they say, ‘one man’s garbage is another man’s gold’. In the coming decades, Don would come to realize just how ‘golden’ these discoveries were.
Don’s long-time friend Reyn Richardson noted, “In those days, information was difficult to locate. Important information could be found in city and county directories, but often the directories themselves were difficult to find”. This didn’t deter Don, even when bureaucrats tried blocking his access to those valuable records. Don recalled, “Sometimes they would say, ‘you can’t see those, they’re government property’. You’d drop a ten dollar bill on the counter and all of a sudden, you can see them”.
Like all good things, the hunt eventually came to an end. The trail went cold. “I thought it was going to last forever,” Don reflected, “but forever came...The gun was either a family heirloom, or it was sold. The attic was cleaned out.”.
As a passionate collector of Canadiana, Don had his sights set on locating firearms that were crafted by Canadian, and more specifically Ontario, gunsmiths. “Canadian-made firearms are not common because many of the makers worked from small shops and output was low,” said Richardson, “and many were in business for only a short time”.
Don’s hunt resulted in an impressive assortment of one-of-a-kind rarities including the only known examples by Canadian gunsmiths John Savage of Morpeth and Roswell Cook of Edwardsburg.
This John Savage, Morpeth, Ontario Rifle is offered as lot 172 in the upcoming sale. It is the only known example by this gunmaker.
This Roswell Cook, Edwardsburg, Ontario Rifle is offered as lot 308 in the upcoming sale. It is the only known example by this gunmaker.
Locating and acquiring the guns was not an easy feat, but Don always found a way. Case in point: the S.T Green Cased Rifle (lot 344) - a rare .45 calibre rifle by Toronto gunsmith Samuel Green. Unbeknownst to Don, it was offered at an obscure auction house in England, entirely mis-identified. When it finally came to his attention, he contacted the auction house and bought it from the owner. At the time, transporting guns out of England was costly, time-consuming and nearly impossible. However, Don’s friend, a pilot, also happened to collect firearms. The pilot (who in those days was not likely to have been checked in security) took the cased rifle in the cockpit on a flight back from England and delivered it to Don. Such a courier service would be unlikely to ‘take flight’ today. But like always, Don had the information, and knew the right people at the right time to make it happen.
Don’s access to the registry archives gave him leads on many of the exceptionally rare firearms in his collection. For instance, the Hovsmovh Rifle, offered as lot 19, is the only known example of its kind. Hovsmovh means “five branches” in Mohawk, which led Don to believe this weapon was crafted by an Indigenous gunsmith. He also obtained a rare fine-engraved Canada West Rifle crafted by James Jones, the only known Black gunmaker in Ontario (read our full Miller Times story feature on James Jones here).
This Hovsmovh, Sarnia, Ontario Rifle is offered as lot 19 in the upcoming sale.
This James Jones, Chatham, C. W. Rifle is offered as lot 23 in the upcoming sale.
Another unusual piece, crafted by gunsmith Dudley Booth of Ottawa, represents a very unusual design. Referred to by Don as a ‘buggy gun’, this firearm was devoid of an internal lock as the firing mechanism. Instead, the spring steel trigger guard provides the force required to fire the hammer. The gun is small enough to be used as a pistol but is also fitted with a square hole in the back of the butt that would accommodate a shoulder stock so that it could be fired two-handed. The entire system is remarkable and speaks to Booth’s ingenuity and creativity. Don believed only five or less examples were ever made.
The four-barreled shotgun by Michael Mater of Chippawa is another example of creativity. It is a very unusual design with its four barrels rotating into firing position. Don wasn't always impressed with the quality of Mater's work – especially seeing as Mater lost an eye when one of his guns exploded - but Don gave him an A-for-effort for his backwoods inventor spirit.
Michael Mater’s patent drawings for his four-barreled shotgun design.
This purported ‘inventor spirit’ was flourishing in the 1800s, and led to the creation of many interesting experimental guns. The Ontario Breech Loading Rifle, offered as lot 22, is an experimental rifle created by Chatham gunsmith Thomas Nichol in 1867. Nichol filed for a patent to protect his invention of this breech-loading rifle – a proprietary design which required the user to load the ammunition via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to the often-finicky front (muzzle) end. Nichol was certainly on to something, as this is how the vast majority of guns are designed today.
This Thomas Nichol, Chatham, Ontario Breech Loading Experimental Rifle is offered as lot 22 in the October 9th sale.
“While Canadian guns were Don's main interest, he also had an appreciation for firearms collecting in general,” said Richardson. Don’s collection features an assortment of notable American firearms including a rare Winchester model 1873 Deluxe, fitted with a special ordered checkered grip and forestock.
This Winchester, Model 1873 Deluxe Rifle is offered as lot 206 in the upcoming sale.
“The dispersal of this remarkable collection will provide a unique opportunity not only for firearms collectors,” said Richardson, “but also for collectors of rare items originating from a specific area, as the makers were scattered throughout Southern Ontario”.
The collection is slated to sell at Miller & Miller’s October 9th sale of Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana. Other highlights in this important sale include the Blyth’s collection of Canadian art including original works by A.Y Jackson and A.J Casson. Take aim! This is a sale not to be missed.
Story by Tess Malloy
Tess is a freelance writer and history enthusiast who enjoys unearthing interesting stories about remarkable people and objects. Tess has written for The Miller Times for four years.
Sale Details:
Firearms, Sporting & Canadiana
October 9, 2021 | 9am
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