holstcollection
#1The Pomona Gun Show was mentioned in a previous post.
In 1992 I visited LA as I was working with commercial radio. We had several visits on local radio stations to learn more about how they were working. The trip was also a holiday so we rented a Chrysler Le Baron convertible for our trip through the Golden State.
We went there close after the LA riots and many people told us it was a melting pot so as being white people we were told to be very careful.
At his time, my collection was more than modest, containing only 50-60 pair of cuffs. I had no connections with dealers like Joe Tanner and eBay was not yet invented.
Someone advised us to go to the Pomona Gun Show as there might be handcuffs for sale there. I remember this was a huge event with an uncountable number of dealers. You could find anything there, all kind of guns, antiques – and handcuffs.
When walking around, I suddenly saw a table with cuffs. They were made of aluminum and I had never seen such cuffs before. Later, they turned out to be the East German aluminum handcuffs, model 1 and 2. I bought them of course. The seller told me he had a good collection of handcuffs at home. I asked him if it was possible to come and see the collection. He said yes and me and my friend were invited to his house in Yucaipa, a suburb to LA.
All cuffs were displayed on boards with handwritten labels beside each pair. I was stunned as I had never seen anything like this before. So many old and strange restraints in so many shapes. He told us the names of these cuffs, there were Judd, Bottlenecks, Tower, Delestatius, Caveney, Maltby, Palmer etc. I was fascinated by all names given to them. I took a few photos of the boards with my simple camera and I remember the name "Lockman" was written on one of them.
The cuffs I was most intrigued by were the "Bottlenecks" as I found the design extremely odd and very attractive. None of the cuffs were for sale and the owner told us several times how valuable they were. In 2001 I searched eBay and I suddenly found a set. This was my very first purchase on eBay with many more to come.
Now you maybe wonder who the collector was. The man was Jim Main. After his passing, the entire collection was sold in an auction in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2007. There were many rare cuffs in the collection but the rarest of them all was the Lorey combination handcuffs, posted here recently.
I have the Pomona Gun Show and Jim Main to thank! Without these visits, my collecting would not have got the spark that later made me a true cuff collector.
Photos of the entrance to the Pomona Gun Show, Jim Main's house and some of the boards. Sorry for the bad quality.
Lars
In 1992 I visited LA as I was working with commercial radio. We had several visits on local radio stations to learn more about how they were working. The trip was also a holiday so we rented a Chrysler Le Baron convertible for our trip through the Golden State.
We went there close after the LA riots and many people told us it was a melting pot so as being white people we were told to be very careful.
At his time, my collection was more than modest, containing only 50-60 pair of cuffs. I had no connections with dealers like Joe Tanner and eBay was not yet invented.
Someone advised us to go to the Pomona Gun Show as there might be handcuffs for sale there. I remember this was a huge event with an uncountable number of dealers. You could find anything there, all kind of guns, antiques – and handcuffs.
When walking around, I suddenly saw a table with cuffs. They were made of aluminum and I had never seen such cuffs before. Later, they turned out to be the East German aluminum handcuffs, model 1 and 2. I bought them of course. The seller told me he had a good collection of handcuffs at home. I asked him if it was possible to come and see the collection. He said yes and me and my friend were invited to his house in Yucaipa, a suburb to LA.
All cuffs were displayed on boards with handwritten labels beside each pair. I was stunned as I had never seen anything like this before. So many old and strange restraints in so many shapes. He told us the names of these cuffs, there were Judd, Bottlenecks, Tower, Delestatius, Caveney, Maltby, Palmer etc. I was fascinated by all names given to them. I took a few photos of the boards with my simple camera and I remember the name "Lockman" was written on one of them.
The cuffs I was most intrigued by were the "Bottlenecks" as I found the design extremely odd and very attractive. None of the cuffs were for sale and the owner told us several times how valuable they were. In 2001 I searched eBay and I suddenly found a set. This was my very first purchase on eBay with many more to come.
Now you maybe wonder who the collector was. The man was Jim Main. After his passing, the entire collection was sold in an auction in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2007. There were many rare cuffs in the collection but the rarest of them all was the Lorey combination handcuffs, posted here recently.
I have the Pomona Gun Show and Jim Main to thank! Without these visits, my collecting would not have got the spark that later made me a true cuff collector.
Photos of the entrance to the Pomona Gun Show, Jim Main's house and some of the boards. Sorry for the bad quality.
Lars