This knife was originally owned by Elvis Presley, and it comes with it’s own handmade leather sheath featuring a hound dog, a guitar, some musical notes, and of course, the initials “E.P.”
Elvis was known to have a number of knives, typically handmade designs and often personalized for him individually. He also had a number of firearms in his collection, including the handgun he famously used to shoot his De Tomaso Pantera when it wouldn’t start for him one day.
The knife comes with a personalized leather scabbard featuring the initials “EP”, a guitar, some musical notes, and a friendly looking dog at the top.
The story of how this knife came to be in Elvis’ possession is lost to history, though it is definitely one of his own personal knives as it comes with a letter of provenance handwritten to the consignor on Elvis Presley stationery, verifying that the knife originally belonged to Elvis, signed by Presley’s cousin and former secretary, Patsy Presley Gambill.
Elvis was known to be generous, even gifting people cars on a whim on multiple occasions. He also often received gifts from fans, and in return would often give them something of his own.
One example of this happened in 1974 when knife maker Gil Hibben met Elvis through a mutual friend named Ed Parker, who was the founder of the Kenpo Karate system. Elvis was a Kenpo practitioner, and so Parker introduced him to his longtime friend Hibben, who gave him a handmade knife of his own design while visiting him at his LA home.
Elvis is said to have loved it, he loved it so much in fact that he went upstairs and came back down with one of his own gold Omega watches, presenting it to Hibben as a gift.
This letter of provenance for the knife was handwritten on Elvis Presley stationery, verifying that the knife originally belonged to Elvis, signed by Presley’s cousin and former secretary, Patsy Presley Gambill.
The knife shown in this article likely sat in Elvis’ collection not far from the above mentioned Hibben. It has a wooden handle with a brass butt and finger guard. It looks well used, showing signs of patina and wear, and it has a stainless steel blade measuring in a 4 inches long.
The knife is now due to be auctioned by Julien’s in a few days time with a price guide of 1,000 – 2,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Julien’s
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
