McKenzie Mitts

This set of mitts just sold for $3300 plus 15% buyers fee and unknown postage fees.  This same set was up for auction many months ago and I believe they were also sold at that time.  

Ron

I am not sure what happened if this set was in a previous auction.
Maybe the buyer backed out.
This pair is going to a good home.  A friend of mine was the lucky bidder.
He is a police memorabilia guy and has a few handcuffs and has always wanted one of these.
I am happy that he found a nice pair.

At around $3800 including postage and fees that's a good price in that condition. Makes mine look cheap (LOL) at $5000 ONO or trades of old English restraints. 
Paul

These are now provisionally sold. Happy to see them stay in the collector community.

Paul, yours look almost mint! I'm still looking for a pair of these as well.

In 2009, the question was asked who was keeping a list of how many Mitts are known.

At that time Stan Willis compiled this list which had details about markings, original chains and keys as well as who is in possession of both blued and nickeled versions:

 Here is the count and some added information as of May 12, 2009:


36 TOTAL
19 Black
17 Nickle
32 are verified correct
10 belly chains (Some are not original)
28 are marked on the left cuff with pat. date "PATENTED MARCH 10 -'25"
6 are marked on both cuffs. All are Nickle finish.
4 collectors have BOTH a Nickle and a Black pair.
1 Nickle and 1 Black pair are verified with no patent dates. One is my Nickle pair, which I believe is pre-patent.
It is possible that my unmarked Nickle pair came from the McKenzie family. They came from Denver, which is where Oliver Mckenzie is buried.

3 are in the UK
3 are in Germany


1 is in Canada (not verified)
1 is in Switzerland (not verified)

I have been noting, but not recording how many I have learned about since this tally was published and know of maybe 10 more that can be added to the list.  I came into a nice blued one a year ago and it found a new home up north.  I am pretty sure that it was not on Stans tally.
I will most likely have a nickeled one for sale/trade in a month or so.
There are some in museums and some sold at auctions recently and I have no way to know if they have already been counted.

I would figure that there are about 50 of these in private collections and museums.  Not sure how many are rust buckets.

https://www.salina.com/story/news/2021/ ... 984399001/

Another one to be added to the list.

$8,000 to 9,000?   In a parallel universe maybe!

Another;


https://fortbissell.wordpress.com/tag/mckenzie-mitts/

There is one good blue pair in Australia, but if we cannot verify Stan's list then we will only ever have an estimate of how many are know, let alone how many actually exist. Will about 50 known mitts, I think they could be described as scarce. Happy hunting.