POTD: Colt DA Revolver Bookends from the Office of J. Edgar Hoover
Sam.S 12.20.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a pair of colt revolver bookends. Not just any bookends either. These bookends are actual functional Colt Double Action Police revolvers that were not only gold plated at the FBI, but also were housed in J. Edgar Hoover’s private office. These revolvers were in his office until the day he died. They had been from an out of a 200 gun shipment meant for regular FBI use.
“This interesting set of bookends have a set gold plated Colt Official Police revolvers fitted to them and were used in J. Edgar Hoover’s private office at the F.B.I. Hoover was arguably one of the most powerful men, if not the most, in the country for a large swath of the 20th century…They were gold plated by the F.B.I. crime lab. Beaver further states that “Hoover kept these guns in his private inner officer at bureau headquarters for a number of years up until the time of his death in 1972.” … The factory letter for this revolver states that it was part of a February 23, 1951, 200 gun shipment of .38 Special Colt Official Police revolvers special ordered by the Department of Justice for the F.B.I. with 4 inch barrels, blue finish, and custom tuned actions with a 3 1/2 pound trigger pulls. Gun B was part of the same shipment. The revolvers both have standard Colt markings and features and are fitted with checkered walnut grips and “Super Grip” adapters. The round blade front sights have been modified to fix the revolvers to the wooden stands. The other contact points are on the back straps which are also fixed to the stands.”
Lot 1594: Historic Documented Pair of Special Order F.B.I. Colt Official P. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved December 19, 2021, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/65/1594/historic-documented-pair-of-special-order-fbi-colt-official-p.
