Three antique Winchester cartridge display boards combine for nearly $200,000 (Canadian) in Miller & Miller auction

NEW HAMBURG, Ontario - April 2, 2025 - PRLog -- Three antique Winchester cartridge display boards from around the turn of the century combined for nearly $200,000 in an online-only Firearms & Sporting Auction, featuring the diverse collections of Wayne G. Connor and the late Robert Warwick, held March 29^th by Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. In all, 211 lots came up for bid.

All prices quoted in this report are in Canadian dollars and include an 18 percent buyer's premium.

The sale was packed with early and rare firearms art and advertising, store displays, factory cartridge boards, fine Winchester rifles and shotguns, Colt percussion revolvers, flintlocks, Smith & Wesson cartridge revolvers, North American trade muskets, magnificent decoys, factory reloading tools, scarce ammunition boxes, and a sprinkling of iconic military rifles.

The American-made Winchester cartridge boards were the overall top three lots of the auction, with each one easily surpassing its high estimate. They included the following:

• A Winchester 1888 Inverted "V" cartridge display board – slightly altered from the 1886 introduced version (and rarer, too) by the addition of two additional rifle cartridges, the .38-56 WCF added on the left side above a primer tin and the .40-60 WCF added on the right side. 26 ¼ inches by 37 inches (sight, less frame) ($100,300).
• An 1897 Winchester Double "W" cartridge display board No 291 – an oak framed lithographed backboard with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company displaying dummy inert samples of all the pistol and rifle cartridges, and shotgun shells then being produced in their New Haven factory. 40 inches by 57 ½ inches ($79,650).
• A Winchester 1902 Double "W" cartridge board lithograph – the last of the early cartridge boards, entirely made up in a paper version and, unlike its predecessor 1897 board, there are no dummy cartridges attached. These 1902 boards don't show up as often as the 1897 boards and are rarer. 31 ¼ inches by 49 ¼ inches (sight) ($18,880).

"Thank you to all who participated in our Firearms & Sporting auction," said Paul Matheson, Miller & Miller's Consignment Director for the event. "It was a pleasure to handle the long-time collections of Wayne Connor and Robert Warwick, along with many other great individual consignments. The auction was a huge success, with excellent results across all categories. In advertising, some fine examples stand out. We now look forward to the next firearms auction."

To learn more about Miller & Miller Auctions, Ltd. and their calendar of upcoming sales, visit www.MillerandMillerAuctions.com.