That wasn’t the first time I’d seen the guns, though. They had been rebuilt, re-pinned, rebarreled, restocked, re-proofed and refinished to a very high standard “by the maker” – as the crucial phrase goes – while maintaining their classic late-Victorian bones. They caused a stir among the Concours judges, nine British and American gun guys (and one Dutchman) who’d seen everything but, without hesitation, unanimously awarded then two gold medals: Best Restoration and Best Matched Pair. These guns first reappeared in public in 2003 at the sixth Gold Medal Concours d’Elegance of Fine Guns, held with the Vintage Cup that September in Millbrook, New York.
Now consider that these are also ejector guns and that there were three of them, not two’ that they now have survived for 123 years, and they’ve been reunited, and they’ve been properly brought back to life… likely they are unique today, and possibly they were back in 1894 too. True pairs of London-best hammer guns were never common add sidelevers (and sideclips), and the number shrinks considerably further. Did the man understand how unusual his guns were or would become?Īt the time, Henry Atkin made only “best”-grade guns, and these were actioned by none other than John Robertson, who in 1894 was still an out worker to the trade even though by then he was manager and half-owner of Boss & Co. Wynne-Finch was then a 48-year-old major of the Royal Horse Guards and a famous bon vivant.
The latter were made for, or anyway sold to, John Seymour Wynne-Finch, in London, in 1894. 577 Nitro Express… and Henry Atkin 12 bores Nos. This? It was a thank you from my business partners”) Ernest Hemingway’s double. 1974): a pair of pre-world war I Boss Over/under that emerged from a vintage Bentley at Swinton Park, long ago the small bore Purdey-Woodward O/U that a firend casually unpacked one day (“Oh. In a lifetime of ogling guns, a few will always stick in my mind’s eye: the first 28-gauge side by side I ever saw (a boxlock Westley Richards, c. (The image in the magazine scan is showing it here in process – prior to being case coloured and finished.) Before it was reunited with its two siblings. ‘Henry Atkin 12 – bore No.768 was rebuilt by English gunmaker Carl Russell & Co. The following article is by Silvio Calabi and was published in the Shooting Sportsman.
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