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Lot 524
A Very Rare 8-Bore Flintlock Sporting GunBy James Purdey, Princes St., Leicester Sq., London, No. 44, Circa 1818
26 November 2014, 10:30 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £11,500 inc. premium
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A Very Rare 8-Bore Flintlock Sporting Gun
By James Purdey, Princes St., Leicester Sq., London, No. 44, Circa 1818
By James Purdey, Princes St., Leicester Sq., London, No. 44, Circa 1818
Expertly reconverted from percussion, with rebrowned twist sighted barrel turned at the girdle, octagonal breech becoming polygonal and signed in gold gothic script along the top flat, patent recessed breech with gold-lined rectangular maker's stamp, gold lines and platinum-lined touch-hole, foliate scroll engraved tang, foliate engraved flat lock with intercepting sears, signed on a panel against a starburst between foliage beneath the pan and engraved 'Patent' on the tail behind the patent safety-catch engaging with the rear of the pierced cock, rainproof pan and large roller, figured half-stock (repaired split opposite the lock, fore-end repaired in front of the lock), border engraved steel mounts (some wear and pitting, some engraving refreshed) decorated with foliage and comprising butt-plate and trigger-guard, the latter with patent grip-safety, trigger-plate with pineapple finial, vacant silver escutcheon, silver barrel-bolt escutcheons and fore-end cap, and brass-mounted ramrod, London proof marks and Charles Lancaster's barrelsmith's mark
81.8 cm. barrel
81.8 cm. barrel
Footnotes
Literature:
L. Patrick Unsworth, The Early Purdeys, 1996, p. 24, 28, 112 and 181, pls. 2 and 3
Only ten flintlock guns by Purdey are known to exist of which this is the third earliest. The earliest (no. 14) was discovered by Peter Scott-Edeson in 1994 in the reserve collection of the then Royal Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street, Edinburgh. See Donald Dallas, Purdey, Gun & Rifle Makers ..., 2000, p. 9, 35-36, eight black and white illustrations in text, colour pls. 3-5








