BY JAMES PURDEY, PRINCES STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON, NO. 839 FOR 1825

Details

A Very Rare 15-Bore D.B. Flintlock Sporting Gun
By James Purdey, Princes Street, Leicester Square, London, No. 839 for 1825
With rebrowned twist barrels signed in capital letters on the rib, silver fore-sight, case-hardened recessed patent breeches each with platinum-lined stamp, two platinum lines, and platinum-lined touch-hole, scroll engraved case-hardened tang, signed case-hardened serial numbered locks engraved with scrolls and with a marine monster on each tail, blued steel-springs, rollers, pierced cocks, and rainproof pans (the left lock mechanism from gun No. 687), finely figured walnut half-stock (minor bruising, cracked and chipped above the tail of the left lock), chequered grip, the butt with high comb, finely engraved blued iron mounts, silver escutcheon, three iron sling mounts, spare side-nail on the underside of the butt, original brass-mounted ramrod, and some original finish, London proof marks, the barrels forged by Charles Lancaster
30in. (76.3cm.) barrels

Provenance

Anon. sale (from the Fauré-Lepage Collection), Etude Couturier-Nicolay, Palais Galleria, Paris, 3 June 1976, lot 32 (FF 12,000 plus premium, to Neal)

Literature

L. Patrick Unsworth, The Early Purdeys, pp. 112-113, 190, plate 24

Exhibited

The Game Fair, Shuttleworth Old Warden Park, 27-29 July 2001

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Purdey double flintlock guns Nos. 687 and 839 were originally purchased by the same person, J. Sellright, and both were returned to Purdey for cleaning in 1828 and 1830. One of them was again returned in 1831, this time for overhaul. No. 839 was subsequently owned by a French general, a fact which no doubt explains the sling mounts

This is one of only ten unconverted Purdey flintlock guns known to have survived, of which Keith Neal owned four, including the only one in its original case, sold from his collection in these Rooms, 9 November 2000, lot 113 (£39,950 including premium)

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