North American Auction Company
Live Auction

Timeless Treasures: 19th C. Native, Western Photographs & French Elegance

Sat, Sep 13, 2025 11:00AM EDT
  2025-09-13 11:00:00 2025-09-13 11:00:00 America/New_York North American Auction Company North American Auction Company : Timeless Treasures: 19th C. Native, Western Photographs & French Elegance https://live.naabid.com/auctions/north-american-auction/timeless-treasures-19th-c-native-western-photographs-french-elegance-20467
Join us Saturday, September 13th at 9am MT in Bozeman, MT for Timeless Treasures: 19th C. Native, Western Photographs & French Elegance. This exceptional auction features a remarkable collection of 19th-century Native American artifacts, rare Western photography by Haynes, Huffman, and other Montana photographers, and an impressive selection of 18th-century French furniture. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to acquire historic and elegant treasures. Browse the full catalog at live.naabid.com
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Lot 96

Elizabeth Custer Signed 1st Ed. & Custer Motto Dagger

Estimate: $5,000 - $10,000
Starting Bid
$2,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$50 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$25,000 $2,500
$100,000 $5,000

The lot features a Elizabeth Bacon Custer (1842-1933) signed and Custer Motto inscribed first edition Boots and Saddles 1885 book and Custer Motto inscribed Sheffield silver handled dagger. The book is also signed by Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1912) famed American painter of the Old West and the disappearing frontier, likely his personal copy gifted to him by Elizabeth Custer. The book is inscribed, “Motto on General Custer’s Spanish Sword ‘Do not draw me without cause, Do not sheath me without honor.’ Elizabeth B. Custer September 1, 1903.” The lot also includes an Elizabeth Custer owned Custer Motto dagger with silver handle. The dagger is made by Halsted & Sons Sheffield and exhibits a double edge blade with silver handle and silver and red leather with gilt gold scabbard sheath. The blade is inscribed with a variation of the Custer Motto, “Never Draw Me Without Reason Nor Sheath Me Without Honour.” Both pieces come from one of, if not the largest Elizabeth Custer collections. The knife dates to during the lifetime of George Armstrong Custer. Provenance: This exact book was found to be authentically signed and inscribed by Elizabeth Custer and signed by Charles Schreyvogel by the experts at Freeman’s Hindman Cowan’s and was sold in their May 2023 sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts; ex-collection of Patrick Atkinson Minneapolis, Minnesota; ex-museum collection out of Eastern Montana. Further information on the book: This is an Elizabeth Custer, the author, owned and signed 1885 “Boots and Saddles” Or Life In Dakota With General Custer” book by Elizabeth B. Custer; New York Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square 1885 (publisher / copyright). This author signed book shows the brown hard cover with gilt lettering and is well preserved. Both signatures and inscription have a good tone and present well. Of the Libby Custer signed book, this is likely gifted to the most notable individual as Charles Schreyvogel was truly a prominent artist at the time and considered one of the more important artists of the West. Chas. Schreyvogel would go on to create several paintings of General George Armstrong Custer in his life. The book illuminates a wonderful narrative of the life of General Custer on the plains in the mid to late 1800s. The book was written as a dedication to her husband, General George Armstrong Custer, and chronicles their life together until his untimely death at the hands of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass), and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand in 1876. After President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed General Armstrong Custer for the disaster at Little Bighorn, Elizabeth Custer, the General's wife, took on the role of his public defender. Beginning with "Boots and Saddles" in 1885, she would go on to publish a trilogy of autobiographical works about the life of her martyred husband, to include "Tenting on the Plains" (1887) and "Following the Guidon" (1890). Book measures 7 5/8-inches by 5.25-inches by 1 1/8-inches. Knife sheathed is 9.75-inches long.

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