Product Details
BOSS & CO.
A PAIR OF 12-BORE SINGLE-TRIGGER EASY-OPENING ROUND-BODIED SIDELOCK EJECTORS, serial no. 6125 / 6,
28in. replacement nitro barrels by the makers, the ribs engraved 'BOSS & CO. 13/14 CORK STREET. LONDON. W.1.' and gold-inlaid '1' and '2' at the breech ends, 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. imp. cyl. and 1/4 choke (both), rounded bar actions, Boss & Co. easy-opening actions with 1905 improved patent single-triggers, toplevers gold-inlaid '1' and '2', automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, rolled-edge triggerguards, best fine bouquet and scroll engraving, brushed finishes, 16in. highly-figured replacement stocks (swept at the combs), weight 6lb. 9oz. (both), in their brass-cornered oak and leather double guncase with canvas and leather outer and some accessories; and together with their original well-figured stocks
Provenance: The makers have kindly informed us that this pair of shotguns were ordered with 28in. barrels in January 1912 for H.R.H. Princess Pleso.
Research indicates that there may be a typographical error in the maker's original entry, and that the person referred to is, in all probability, H.R.H. The Princess of Pless.
She was born Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West on 28th June 1873 at Ruthin Castle, Denbighshire to Col. William Cornwallis-West and Mary "Patsy" Fitzpatrick ( a relation of both the Marquess of Headfort and Earl De La Warr). She was presented to Queen Victoria as a debutant and became engaged to one of Germany's wealthiest aristocrats, Hans Heinrich, Prince of Pless, during her first season. The marriage took place on 8th December 1891 in London before she took-up residence and became hostess at both Furstenstein and Pless Castles in Silesia. The Princess was a great socialite and noted beauty of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.
During her marriage and time in Germany she became something of a social reformer and also lobbied for better relations between King Edward VII and his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor (she counted both men as friends) who became increasingly bellicose during the early years of the 20th Century. She was duty-bound to spend the Great War in Germany and served as an auxiliary nurse on the hospital trains running back from the front.
She bore her husband three children but the marriage broke down fairly soon after war ended and Daisy was divorced by the end of 1922. She kept a journal religiously and, though meant for her own consumption, had these published in 1927. Her memoirs proved a success and were widely read both here and abroad. The remainder of her life could be considered rather tragic, and she spent a deal of it in social isolation and relative poverty, helped mainly by the working classes of Silesia whom she had tried so hard to help in her earlier years.
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Estimate £16,000-18,000
S2