BOGOTA, Colombia – Next week in New York, the auctioneer's gavel will come down on a pair of ornate 19th-century pistols that tell the story of three generations of revolutionaries from three continents who shaped the Americas.
The handguns — embossed with symbols from Greek and Roman mythology — belonged to Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar. When he died in 1830 at age 47, he had liberated six nations from Spanish rule.
But it's who gave him the gifts that's fueling interest. The weapons were thought to be a present to Bolivar from the Marquis de Lafayette, the aristocrat-turned-revolutionary who fought in the French and U.S. wars of independence.
As the story goes, in 1825, the family of the late George Washington was so impressed with Bolivar (they referred to him as the "Washington of the South") that they sent him a portrait of the first American president, a medal and a lock of his hair. It was as part of that revolutionary care package that Lafayette is believed to have sent Bolivar the pistols, crafted by Nicolas-Noel Boutet, Napoleon's gunsmith.
Washington, Lafayette and Bolivar were of three different generations, but they espoused the same values and the younger Bolivar openly admired the men. When Bolivar got wind of the gifts coming from his French hero and Washington's estate, he dictated a note in March, 1826, to Lafayette.
"What mortal could ever be worthy of the honors that (Your Excellency) and Mount Vernon see fit to lavish on me," he wrote from Lima, Peru.
