Product Details
HOLLAND & HOLLAND
A .300 H&H BOLT-MAGAZINE SPORTING RIFLE, serial no. 2700,
originally in .244 calibre, 24 3/4in. replacement nitro barrel engraved 'HOLLAND & HOLLAND. 13 BRUTON STREET. LONDON.', block mounted open sights with folding leaf sight, block-mounted bead foresight with fold-over protector hood, matt top receiver ring, receiver (with thumb cutout) with quickly-detachable telescopic sight mounts bases, with original B Nickel Supra 4x36 L81 E/S telescopic sight in mounts engraved with Holland & Holland and the serial number, with second K Kahles Helia S 1,1-4,5x20 telescopic sight (with mounts), recoil block, hinged straddle floorplate with push button release and engraved 'MADE IN ENGLAND. 4 CARTdgs', figured pistolgrip stock with cheekpiece, monte carlo comb, sling eyes, colour-hardened steel pistolgrip-cap (with trap), horn finial, with escutcheon engraved with the letter 'W' surmounted by a coronet of a Marquess, 14 1/2in. pull including buttplate, in its full length canvas and leather case, with two John Rigby & Co. sighting targets at 100 yards (headed 'Duke of Wellington'), one for each telescopic sight, the case lid with leather cartouche stamped with 'W' and coronet
Provenance: The makers have kindly informed us that this rifle was completed in 1956 for the Marquess of Douro and that they subsequently fitted a new barrel in .300H&H in 1991 for the original owner.
Brigadier Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, K.G., L.V.O., O.B.E., M.C., D.L. is a senior British peer and was born July 1915 into the noble family who hold titles in several countries due to the courageous exploits of the 1st Duke in putting down the massed armies of the French.
Wellesley was born in Rome to Gerald Wellesley, the 7th Duke and Dorothy Violet, the daughter of Robert Ashton. He was schooled at Eton before going up to New College, Oxford. He was commissioned in to the army in 1940 as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Horse Guards and by 1946 had been awarded the Military Cross and received a permanent commission with the rank of Captain. He was promoted at intervals and retired from the army in 1968 with the honorary rank of Brigadier after his last posting as Defence Attaché to Spain. He also holds three other honorary military appointments, these being; Deputy Colonel-in-Chief of the Yorkshire Regiment, Deputy Colonel of The Blues and Royals and Honorary Colonel of the 2nd Battalion, Wessex Regiment.
He was styled as the Marquess of Douro between 1943 and 1972. The title had been created for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington in gratitude for his services commanding the allies (Great Britain, Spain and Portugal) during the Peninsula War when France's Grande Armée, under the able command of Napoleon pushed south in a bid to seize control of the Iberian Peninsula. Initially France and Spain had the common goal of defeated Portugal but in the second year of the war France turned against its ally and the stage was set for a war that only really ended when the Sixth Coalition routed Napoleon in 1814. Wellesley and General William Carr Beresford, who was placed in command of the Portuguese forces, were taken very much into the hearts of the Spanish who had taken a terrific beating when France turned against them.
Estimate £6,000-8,000
S1