I cannot begin to describe how hard it is to find something like this.  This is an extremely rare photograph probably taken in the 1880's or 1890's of a group of American men who were members of the Civil Guard of Hawaii.  I'm by no means an expert on this organization's history, but I do know they played a hand in over-throwing the Hawaiian monarchy in the mid-1890's.  I also know that they purchased a sizeable quantity of Winchesters for their units which is mentioned in the Winchester Book by George Madis.  However, in all the mentions of these guns, I've never encountered a photo.  In the past, we've only seen Winchester 1876's and 86's with their rack numbers and "CGH" stamped on the buttstocks.  This is not something you'll see every day...I've been collecting for 20 years and its the first photo I've ever encountered. It's also unusual in that these men are posed around a rather nice-looking Model 1866 Winchester rifle instead of the 76's and 86's we usually hear about.    It looks to be a 4th model with iron nose cap and the short rear sight...also found on early Model 1873 rifles. These late 1866's were built primarily during the 1880's and a few in the 1890's...thus, based on the uniforms and the 1866...this is almost certainly an 1880's to 1890's  era photograph. Also note the 3 Model 1877 Springfield Trapdoor rifles to the right side.  The 9 men in the photo are wearing typical dark blue federal type uniforms with Kepi's and unit insignia.  Also note the large Mills cartridge belts they have on that appear filled with 45-70 cartridges.  Several have drinks in their hands and I see no less than 3 bottles of wine or liquor.  They're posing in front of a Victorian era house but if you look closely, there is some fairly exotic shrubbery around the periphery.  It looks a bit warm too...look at the dog on the left side panting...the beverages about, and the open window on the side of the house.  Interestingly enough, there is no chimney on the end of the house either but there a couple of covered porches.  The photo itself is fairly large measuring 9 1/2" X 7" on an old white matte.  One look at it and you know its definitely original as its lightened a bit with age with some light foxing spots on the photo and back of the matte is started to turn brown.  It even smells quite old.  A great photo that belongs in a book on Winchesters!

Item# 0505

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