A Gift From the Earl

This double-barrel shotgun was made for Texas Jack by James Dalziel Dougall & Sons, a gift from Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven. Jack had just returned to his wife's home in Billerica after a long trip to Yellowstone Park with the Earl when he learned that a gift was waiting for him in Boson.

Though the provenance isn't recorded, this gift entered Yale University's Beinecke Library collection as part of the estate of Nate Salsbury, Buffalo Bill Cody's partner in the Wild West Show. It seems likely that Salsbury acquired it from Cody himself.

The collection description is as follows:

One double-barrel shotgun made by James Dalziel Dougall and Sons, and owned by John Burwell "Texas Jack" Omohundro, as a gift from the Irish game hunter Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven. The gun is 121 cm in length and was engraved by the maker in several places: "J. D. Dougall. Gun and Rifle Manufacturer to H. R. H. The Prince of Wales. 59 St. James's St. London" on low concave game rib, "J. D. Dougall's Patent Lockfast" on the bottom of the action, "J. D. Dougall" on each lockplate, and the serial number "3303" on the tang. An oval copper plate set in the bottom edge of the European walnut straight grip buttstock is engraved: "From / Earl Dunraven / to / Texas Jack / 1874."