Winchester 1866 of a Gilded Age Family

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July 5, 2023

Winchester 1866 of a Gilded Age Family

By Kurt Allemeier

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This engraved Winchester Model 1866 is a nickel-plated gun from the Gilded Age of America.

The rifle, has a sprinting stag encircled on the left side of the receiver along with the name T.A. Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA. The surname alone should be telling of the vast wealth connected to it.

The Mellon family name should resonate alongside the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Vanderbilts in the annals of American capitalism. The Mellons were a wealthy family of Pittsburgh who got into banking and made a fortune during the unprecedented industrial expansion and huge personal fortunes often amassed alongside it that earned the late 19th century the name “The Gilded Age.”

This nickel-plated Winchester 1866 was the work of Master Engraver John Ulrich who engraved for Winchester in the late 1800s. His beautifully executed scrollwork with beaded backgrounds on the action, foreend cap, and buttplate remains crisp and pops from the finish. It has an extra-long 28-inch barrel topped with a dovetailed front sight blade of German silver, and retains a remarkable 75 percent of the original nickel plating. It will be on offer in Rock Island Auction Company's Aug. 25-27 Premier Auction.

This nickel-plated Winchester 1866 with its beautiful factory engraving was owned by Thomas Alexander Mellon Jr. the first son of Honorable Thomas Alexander Mellon who founded T. Mellon & Sons Bank and whose family amassed immense wealth.

A Winchester 1866 and the Mellon Family

The story of the Mellon family has its rags-to-riches tale of an immigrant pulling himself up by the boot straps leading to immense wealth. However, that wealth didn’t arrive overnight.

Thomas Alexander Mellon was born to a family of farmers in Ulster, Ireland. His family immigrated to the United States when he was five, settling in western Pennsylvania where the family farmed. Inspired by a biography of Benjamin Franklin he read as a teenager and not wanting to work a plow the rest of his life, he became the first of his family to graduate from college in 1837.

After college, Mellon became an attorney and married the daughter of a prominent landowner in 1843. They had eight children. Mellon became a judge in 1859 and invested heavily in coal and real estate. He left the bench a decade later to found a bank, T. Mellon & Sons in Pittsburgh. When he retired, the bank was handed to sons Andrew and Richard.

It was through the bank the family gathered its fortune. Savvy business dealings led to stakes in what would become U.S. Steel, Alcoa, and Gulf Oil. The bank also funded other recognizable American companies like Westinghouse, General Motors, and H.J. Heinz.

A closeup of the right side of this nickel-plated Winchester 1866 shows the masterful scrollwork and beaded background of the engraving by Master Engraver John Ulrich.

Thomas Alexander Mellon Jr. and a Winchester 1866

The T.A. Mellon on the gun is likely Thomas Alexander Mellon Jr., oldest son of the Mellon clan. Born in 1844, when he was out west he met and married Mary Caldwell, the sister of Alexander Caldwell who would go on to be a U.S. Senator from Kansas.

A nephew, William L. Mellon, wrote in “Judge Mellon’s Sons” that his uncle, -- T.A. Mellon professionally, but “Tom” to his family -- was fascinated by birds and snakes.

"Uncle Tom's devotion to hunting was a passion. His prowess was based on such a knowledge of wild creatures and their habits as entitled him to be called a naturalist...Uncle Tom likewise has an interest in guns that carried over when the hunting seasons were finished,” William L. Mellon wrote. “How that interest began I don't know; of course his wife, like my mother, had grown up in the West, in Leavenworth, and his devotion to her and her western background may have sharpened his interest in shooting irons. At any rate, he was a great fellow for guns and collected all kinds. They were kept behind glass in a large case, and in time the collection became quite impressive in size."

In 1887, Thomas Jr. was listed as general manager of the Ligonier Valley Railroad Company, working with his father who was president, while Andrew William Mellon (A.W. Mellon) was secretary and treasurer while two other brothers served as company directors. Thomas Jr. had a home next to his father in Pittsburgh.

The still-bright nickel plating shows the beautiful scrollwork and beaded background engraving by Master Engraver John Ulrich. The left side of the receiver features a running stag encircled along with "T.A. Mellon / PA / Pittsburgh."

He served in the Civil War along the Maryland border. Thomas Jr. wasn’t part of his father’s banking venture and opened a nursery and landscaping business when he was 18, and then ran a lumber and building supplies business as well as developed real estate.

William L. Mellon, the nephew, recalled that his uncle always had a cigar in his mouth. Thomas Alexander Mellon Jr. developed cancer in his mouth and throat and died in 1899, at the age of 55, before his family’s wealth would vastly expand through banking investments.

The Mellon Family’s Wealth

Their father transferred ownership of the bank to A.W. Mellon in 1882. With A.W. and brother R.B. (Richard Beatty) Mellon at the helm, they steered the family bank to successful investments time and time again. A.W. and R.B. would become two of the wealthiest men in the world.

The first significant loan A.W. Mellon offered was to Pittsburgh Reduction Company as it sought to be an aluminum producer. The company would become Alcoa and the Mellons’ role in the company would be one of their most profitable. Mellon family businesses would make the family a producer of 10 percent of the oil exported by the United States at one time.

By 1921, A.W. Mellon was one of the wealthiest men in the United States when President Warren G. Harding appointed him Treasury Secretary, a post that he would lead until 1932. His policies to cut taxes lowered the national debt, but saw that short lived as the Great Depression hit, ballooning the debt.

Judge Thomas A. Mellon, left, invested in real estate and coal and founded T. Mellon & Sons Bank in 1869. A. W. Mellon, right, took over the bank and through investments in companies like U.S. Steel and Gulf Oil would amass immense wealth for the family. He would serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary in the 1920s.

An avid art collector, A.W. Mellon donated $10 million for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and along with R.B. founded the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research that would become part of Carnegie Mellon University.

R.B. Mellon took over as president of the bank that would eventually become BNY Mellon and served on numerous corporate boards. His estate was estimated at $200 million when he died in 1933. His son, Richard King Mellon would take over as president of the family bank and be a significant philanthropist in his native Pittsburgh and in environmental endeavors.

A.W. Mellon died in 1937, four years after R.B. Mellon. The Mellon family’s wealth is currently estimated at $12 billion.

Another Engraved Winchester of the Mellon Family

Rock Island Auction Company proudly had the opportunity to offer fine sporting arms, flintlock pistols, swords, and cannons from the Richard P. Mellon Collection in the September 2021 Premier Auction. Among the offerings were an extremely rare and finest known special order engraved Winchester Deluxe Model 1903 rifle that was factory engraved by Angelo Stokes. The engraving on the left side of the receiver offered a poker hand of a royal flush of hearts surrounded by scrolling and a border. The right side of the receiver had a panel scene of four boys setting out in two canoes outside a cabin. The scene is also surrounded by a border and scrolling. The firearm realized $126,500.

The fantastic factory engraving by Angelo Stokes on this Winchester Deluxe Model 1903 rifle shows a royal flush of hearts poker hand surrounded by scrolling and a border. This firearm realized $126,500 in Rock Island Auction Company's September 2021 Premier Auction.

The Winchester 1866 of a Gilded Age Family

This nickel-plated Winchester 1866 with an extra-long 28-inch barrel displays the classic engraving of Master Engraver John Ulrich and is featured on page 285 of “Winchester’s New Model of 1873: A Tribute,” by James Gordon. Along with the masterful engraving of a running buck on the left side of the receiver and the inscribed name of “T.A. Mellon,” the rifle is also engraved with beautifully executed scrollwork and beaded backgrounds.

This magnificent firearm, owned by a proud collector who was the second generation of one of America’s once wealthiest families, is a reminder of the United States’ industrial age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when prosperity found itself heaped upon those with the forethought and vision to recognize the country’s vast economic opportunities. It is available in Rock Island Auction Company's upcoming Premier Auction, Aug. 25-27.

The top of this nickel-plated Winchester 1866 shows the fine engraving by Master engraver John Ulrich.