Patrick Hawes, Director of Bonhams Sporting Guns Department in London will be on hand next week at the company’s offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow to value local sporting guns following a very successful sale of two weapons sourced from Scotland recently.
A fine 20-bore (3in) 'Sporter' single-trigger over-and-under ejector gun by Holland & Holland, no. 50641 in its leather motor-case with a canvas cover made £26,000 when it came to auction in London. It had come from Troon. A second locally sourced gun, a fine 12-bore bar-in-wood sidelock hammer gun by J. Purdey, no. 10033, made £9,000 on a £4,000-6,000 pre-sale estimate at the same Bonhams sale.
Once owned by Colonel William Stirling who founded the SAS, a pair of 12-bore self-opening sidelock ejector guns by J. Purdey & Sons, no. 26141/2 builtSold for £43k for him, still in their J. Purdey & Sons leather motor-case, sold for £43,000.
Patrick Hawes comments: “Scotland is a treasure trove for Sporting Guns because of the many people here who take part in regular game shooting, or have inherited guns that have been enjoyed by generations of the same family. So the region is a happy hunting ground for us you might say and I would urge anyone thinking of selling a gun to take this opportunity next week to get a current auction estimate.”
Shotguns and sporting rifles have been doing very well at sale particularly if their condition is good or indeed if they come with notable provenance.
Patrick Hawes holds world records at Bonhams for a variety of weapons sold. He says: “Once you have factored in the key aspects of gun buying at auction – quality, condition, rarity – you then find that it’s the weapon’s previous owners that add lustre to its provenance and price. For example anything previously owned by an Indian Maharajah or one of the British Royal family or well-known professional hunters will have an automatic supplement in perceived value and can lead significant increases in sale prices realized.”
Guns with notable provenance sold by Bonhams Sporting Guns Department include: James Bond author, Ian Fleming’s Colt Python .357 magnum revolver; the King of Romania’s Purdey; the Duke of Riansares’ Purdey; Field Marshall Sir Francis Wogan Festings’s Boss Hammer gun; Prince Victor Duleep Singh’s Purdey; Prince Frederick Duleep Singh’s Purdey; the Holland & Holland owned by African white hunter explorer Frederick Selous; most famous professional white hunter, Philip Percival’s pair of rifles by J. Lang: and the most famous elephant hunter James Sutherland whose .577 ‘heavy’ Westley Richards rifle bought by him in 1906, sold for an astonishing £68,000.