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SIDELOCK AND BOXLOCK VALUE

As another year speeds towards its conclusion, there are plenty of auctioneers who are holding sales. Diggory Hadoke investigates

LATE November and December always get congested as everyone rushes to get business concluded and pack up for Christmas.

Notable sales during the period include Holts, Southams, Bonhams, Gavin Gardiner, Wilson 55 and Lonsdales.

All the sales included a good spread of guns and rifles in their catalogues. Some were notable.

Gavin Gardiner featured a 1968 Boss & Co. 16bore, round bodied, sidelock ejector, with assisted opening action. A lightweight gun, at 6lbs, and cased with all accessories. The estimate of £8,000-£12,000 shows what incredible value English sidelocks can be in today’s market. To have this built today would cost in excess of £150,000 plus VAT. Gavin describes the gun as “very little used”. It retains virtually all the original finish.

Boxlocks continue to be incredible value. A pair of Joseph Lang 12-bore boxlocks in very original condition, also little used, were estimated at £3,000£5,000. Like the sidelock Boss, the replacement cost for new guns would be multiples of that figure. They are almost ‘as new’, with 2 3/4-inch chambers and 28-inch barrels.

Collector interest guns in less than original condition are worthwhile searching out. They often fill a place in a collection until something better becomes available. Or, they may simply be the only option where rare guns are concerned. Theophilus Murcott is thought to have built only about 200 examples of his game-changing, 1871 patent, ‘Mousetrap’ gun. This was the gun that demonstrated that hammerless breech-loaders could be attractive and reliable.

Gavin had a sleeved example of the Mousetrap, by the patent holder, estimated at £600-£900.

Those looking for a ‘second gun’ to use with standard steel shot could do worse than pick up something like the W&C Scott ‘Bowood’ 12-bore that Gavin offered for £1,000-£1,500. These 1980s boxlocks, derived from the Webley & Scott model 700, are available in remarkable condition for very modest sums.

The most interesting gun in the sale was probably a Horsley double 4-bore hammer gun, dating from 1871 and estimated at £9,000-£12,000. There is something of a glut in the market of big-bore pieces, and a limited number of buyers. This has caused prices to drop dramatically from a high a decade ago.

However, this is a very rare and beautiful piece and perhaps we may see new interest from collectors as prices drop.

As for expense, the top value lot at Gavin’s was a 16-bore over & under by Italian maestro Luciano Bosis. Beautifully made, elegant and exquisitely engraved by Pasotti, it was estimated to make up to £30,000.

Bonhams

Bonhams catalogue is open for viewing at bonhams .com and includes a number of deactivated military pistols, rifles and machine guns. The sale is on November 23rd in Knightsbridge.

Early Purdey sidelock non-ejectors are not easy to find. Bonhams had three, all in need of work, but all are expected to make under £3,000. Each will give an entry-level Purdey ownership opportunity to someone out there.

Ejectors are less useful than most people imagine, unless they are shooting very big, fast-fire-requiring driven days. I like these early guns. They have a character of their own. Also, omitting ejectors from the gun removes a possible source of trouble later.

Bonhams had a pretty impressive list of high-end pairs by Purdey, Holland & Holland and Boss. The top lot in financial terms, as well as ‘bling’, was a pair of Purdeys made in 1992 and engraved, with profuse gold coverage, by Ken Hunt.

The estimate reached £150,000 plus commission. That sounds like a huge amount of money, but in today’s terms it represents the price of one, new, scrollengraved, Purdey sidelock from Audley House.

Southams

Southams have a sale in Bedford on December 7th and a follow-up in Newnham Street on December 9th. We don’t know much about this yet, but the catalogue should be online by the time we go to print at southamsauction.co.uk

Holts

Holts hold their three sales back to back, with Fine Modern & Antique Arms on November 27th, Modern Sporting Guns & Rifles the following day, and the Sealed Bids Auction on 7th December. Everything is now online and bidding can be done from the comfort of your desk.

The sealed bids auction is always worth looking through carefully as there is little doubt in my mind that a lot of people get ‘snow blinded’ by the sheer volume of kit listed. I have had some very nice buys from it over the years.

This time I noted three Rigby .275 rifles from the 1920s, very reasonably priced. Of course, the frustration of the sealed bid is that you have no idea what the next bid will be. If you want something you have to put a hefty bid on just to be sure. In fact, you are never in control and have to leave it to fate once you have put in what you think is reasonable. You don’t want to miss something for want of an extra fiver, but you also do not want to beat your nearest rival by £300 on a £500 rifle.

The other thing about sealed bids at Holts is that it often has the weird and wonderful. If you want a cannon and have the means to remove it, of course Holts have a cannon for sale. Expect to bid over £1,500 if you need one!

In the main sale there were two vintage Mannlicher-Schönauer rifles re-barrelled to .243 Winchester by Daniel Fraser. Perhaps not everyone’s idea of the ideal stalking rifle but the cost of conversion (and restocking in one case) would have been more than the asking prices for the rifles. They would have been 6.5 x 54 originally and the .243 is a modern, easily available deer-legal round, rather than an out of production veteran.

Few good hammer guns seem to be featured these days, there were only seven at Holts this time. The pick of them perhaps was a Daw. The Daw ‘Central Fire Gun’ is an icon of the era. It brought Schneider’s patent to Britain in 1862 and ended the pin-fire as a system of ignition thereafter. It is the first iteration of all modern centre-fire shotguns in use today. Every serious collection needs one.

This one looked good but it has been Teague lined. Teague lining was heralded as the saviour of Damascus barrels when it was introduced about 15 years ago. By slipping a full-length liner into the barrel, but keeping the external skin of original barrel, it resurrected many scrap guns that were externally pretty but badly pitted.

Unfortunately, the job proved unsatisfactory longterm. The new and old materials sometimes reacted badly to one another and the glue that held the new liners in place did not always adhere indefinitely.

As barrels warm and cool, the old and new metals react slightly differently, causing deviations and slippage. Finally, any dent or damage was impossible to repair as the new barrels were essentially a sandwich and the knocking out of dents in the traditional manner did not work.

With a modest estimate of £500-£700, the Daw might be worth a punt, and observation of how well the barrels hold up, some 16 years after being lined, would be interesting to commentators like me.

In a catalogue full of expensive shotguns, sometimes the unusual is what stands out. I spotted a .22 (Short) version of the Model 1873 Winchester. This dated from around 1886 and is one of only 2,000 ever built. It was estimated at £600-£800, but I expect it to net a good deal more than that.

I will be at several viewings this cycle, so perhaps I’ll meet up with a reader or two there. GTN

A PLACE IN HISTORY

Simon West reflects on the art and craft of gunmaking and calls on the next generation of master craftsmen to be brought forward

IT all began with King Edward III, in the early 14th century, who invested in the newly emerging gunpowder technology. The first use of guns appears to have been against the Scots at Berwick in 1333, but they were certainly deployed with the Army in 1346 to the battlefield at Crécy. Although the effect of the guns might have been slight, beyond frightening the French, the course was set and the gun trade quickly grew.

The manufacture of guns started in the Tower of London but soon grew to the surrounding areas. Later it was to spread to the provinces and, in the 18th century, saw great expansion in Birmingham. In those early years, the crafts of the gunmakers were spread through many other guilds. The founders made the great guns and the brass work for small arms, the joiners made the stocks, the blacksmiths and armourers made the metal parts, even the coopers helped make barrels. It was therefore difficult for gunmakers to represent themselves in a united way and develop their own standards and generate political and commercial influence.

Queen Elizabeth I was lobbied to allow a gunmakers’ guild to be established and pull together the crafts needed to make good guns but with no success. At this time every soldier had to carry his own bullet mould to ensure the ammunition would fit the gun. Further frustrating military experience in wars with France and Spain reinforced the need for better standardisation and quality of arms. It was no surprise then, that in 1637, King Charles I realised that something needed to be done.

Royal Charter

King Charles I issued a charter naming over 100 gunmakers to form the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers of the City of London. He required three things from the Company: the pursuit of excellence, the testing of firearms by proof, and the establishment of training and examination of apprentices under master craftsmen.

For hundreds of years since then, the Gunmakers’ Company has examined and certified craftsmen in the gunmaking crafts. The records show the dates when great names of our trade passed the test. Historically, Purdey, Holland, Daw, Egg, Gibbs, Hellis all appear; more recently, Sinnerton, Torok, Louca, Faraway, Pearce, Crudgington, Rule, etc.

The crafts of gunmaking are essential to British companies maintaining their reputation for being producers of the best sporting firearms in the world. We must recruit, train and qualify skilled craftsmen and women in all the skill areas.

The Gunmakers’ Company is still very active today and provides help in three areas. First the Gunmakers’ Company Charitable Trust (GCCT) provides bursaries to support apprentices.

“In 2007 a bursary scheme was established to support members of the gun trade wishing to employ apprentices. Typically, for a successful application, a grant is up to £5,000 per annum for four years in respect of each apprentice or trainee. Our experience is that this level of support overcomes the initial economic obstacles faced by employers wanting to bring new recruits into gun making. After all, the apprentice is not at first fully productive, and the employer loses further productivity due to the time devoted to training. A small craft workshop can ill afford either. A trustee is appointed to mentor each apprentice and to monitor his or her progress.” GCCT

Applications for a training bursary should be submitted in writing to the Secretary to the Trustees, GCCT, The Proof House, 48-50 Commercial Road, London E1 1PL or by email to clerk@gunmakers.org.uk

Certification

Secondly, the Company provides qualifications through a certification system. The Certification Panel examines apprentices at the end of their training and later those wishing to be recognised as master craftsmen. The Panel, chaired by Master Barrel Maker Bill Blacker and manned by master craftsmen from other crafts, has meetings at least three times a year. Armed with examples of their work, and supported by their trainers, candidates attend an interview with the Panel and discuss their skills. At a subsequent meeting, the successful candidates come back with family members to receive their certificates from the Master of the Company.

Recently, a syllabus has also been prepared for the examination of gunsmiths.

More details can be found at gunmakers.org.uk/ award-of-gunmakers-certification with instructions on how to apply.

Lifetime achievement

Lastly, to celebrate the contribution made by careerlong craftsmen in the Art and Craft of Gunmaking, a few lifetime achievement awards have been made by the Company. Drawing from across the British gunmaking community, recipients of these awards represent that wonderful commitment to a cherished craft. The recent presentations to Ken Hunt, Dave Josey, Peter Delay and Dave Mitchell were quite emotional and a wonderful celebration of the people behind our best guns.

As a trade, we owe it to ourselves to recognise the immense talent we have in our ranks. From the young, investing their future in a world-recognised and long-established craft, to those skilled artists who have maintained our country’s reputation for many generations.

The Gunmakers’ Company and the GTA are here to help. If you want to know more, get in touch with them. If you know of school leavers or later joiners who might be interested in this rewarding career, please point them to the GTA (gtaltd.co.uk) who know the routes in and can offer advice. GTN