New at the Met — Gun and Sword Collector, Issue 2, 2023 — featuring the Steven Maksin Family Collection Winchesters
Dispatches from the Field — The Met Arms & Armor Department, Issue 13
May 23, 2026
An Analysis of Titian’s Maddalena — by Andrea Donati (Steven Maksin Family Collection, English)
May 23, 2026
Man at Arms for the Gun and Sword Collector
Man at Arms / Gun and Sword Collector's "New at the Met" feature for 2023 introduces readers to two exceptional Winchester rifles newly on view in the Metropolitan Museum's Arms and Armor galleries — both on long-term loan from the Steven Maksin Family Collection.
The article walks readers through the Winchester Model 1866 (s/n 36174) engraved by Louis D. Nimschke and presented to Guillermo Crespo y Crespo — distinguished by its gilt decoration and the royal arms of Spain — and the Winchester Model 1873 (s/n 86598), the "Foot Guard" rifle presented in 1882 by the Tibbits Veteran Corps of Troy to the First Company Governor's Foot Guard of Hartford.
Recognized in the American arms field as the best-preserved presentation arms of their respective Winchester models, the two rifles offer Met visitors a singular impression of the original splendor of Winchester's finest presentation pieces of the late 19th century.
The Winchester Model 1866, the first lever-action rifle to carry the Winchester name, descended from the earlier Henry repeater developed by Benjamin Tyler Henry and was produced in New Haven from 1866 to 1899 in slightly more than 170,000 examples. Production-grade examples were standard military and civilian arms; the small number of factory-engraved presentation rifles — typically commissioned through New York and New Haven retailers — are now the most coveted specimens of the model. The Crespo rifle (Met accession 904559) was made for Guillermo Crespo y Crespo, a high-ranking official of the Spanish administration in late-nineteenth-century Cuba or the Philippines, and bears the royal coat of arms of Spain in gold on its receiver. The engraving is the work of Louis D. Nimschke (1832-1904), a German-born New York engraver whose preserved book of pull rubbings — published in 1965 by R.L. Wilson as L.D. Nimschke Factory Engraver — remains the standard documentary source for identifying his hand.
The Foot Guard rifle (Met accession 904560, serial 86598) is a Model 1873 — Winchester's successor to the 1866, in production from 1873 to 1923 with more than 720,000 examples made, and the rifle later mythologised in popular memory as "the gun that won the West". The presentation example on long-term loan at the Met was engraved at the Winchester factory by John Ulrich in 1882 and presented by the Tibbits Veteran Corps of Troy, New York to the First Company Governor's Foot Guard of Hartford, Connecticut — the latter, chartered in 1771, the oldest continuously active military unit in the United States. The rifle is fully engraved with floral scrollwork, animals and presentation lettering, retained in its original fitted case with accessories, and is the only known fully-decorated factory-grade presentation Model 1873 in pristine condition.
The Man at Arms / Gun and Sword Collector magazine, in which the 2023 "New at the Met" feature appears, is the bimonthly specialist publication of Mowbray Publishing of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, founded in 1979. Mowbray's editorial mission spans American military, sporting and presentation arms from the colonial period through the twentieth century, and the magazine's pages are a recognised forum for first publications of important pieces emerging from private collections.
The two Winchester rifles are part of the Met's broader engagement, over the past decade, with the history of American firearms as a branch of the decorative arts — alongside the 2021 joint gift of the Gustave Young-engraved Smith & Wesson Model 1½ revolver, the curatorial work of John Byck on presentation-grade arms, and a programme of long-term loans from private collectors of which the Steven Maksin Family Collection is a leading current example.
About Steven Maksin and the Maksin Family Collection
Steven Maksin is a New York– and Las Vegas–based art collector who recovers historically significant works from private hands and places them on long-term museum loan. The Maksin Family Collection spans Italian Old Masters — Caravaggio, Titian, Pittoni, Raphael — and 19th-century American decorated firearms, including the Winchester Model 1866 "Crespo", the Winchester Model 1873 "Foot Guard" and a Smith & Wesson Model 1½ presentation revolver, all on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Maksin is CEO of Moonbeam Capital and a graduate of NYU Stern.
