Product Details
* HOLLAND & HOLLAND
A 28-BORE PERKES 1878 PATENT BACK-ACTION SIDELOCK NON-EJECTOR, serial no. 12306,
28in. sleeved nitro reproved barrels (in 2013), retaining original rib engraved 'HOLLAND & HOLLAND. 98 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON. WINNER OF ALL THE "FIELD" RIFLE TRIALS. LONDON. 1883', and gold-inlaid '2', 2 3/4in. chambers, bored approx. 3/4 choke in both, toplever gold-inlaid '2', Perkes No.2 patent hammerless action, patent no. 1968 of 1878, use number 1312, Scott patent gas check system, patent no. 617 of 1882, use number 3464, cocking lever return studs, protruding tumbler pivots, automatic safety with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' detail, best bouquet and scroll engraving, brushed bright and reblued finish, replacement crosspin, 14 1/8in. highly-figured stock including buttplate, weight 5lb. 7oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly informed us that this shotgun was completed in 1886 for the Nawab of Bhawalpur.
H.H. Sadeq Muhammed Khan Abbasi IV was Nawab of the princely 17-gun salute state of Bahawalpur between February 1866 and February 1899. He was only four years of age when he succeeded to the title and so the state was run by the British until he came of age and was invested fully. His father had died suddenly and it was widely thought that he had been poisoned by insurrectionists.
The Nawab maintained good relations with Great Britain and made available all his resources during the 1878 - 1880 Afghan campaign. In recognition of this he was made G.C.S.I (Knight Grand Commander of the order of the Star of India). Like many of his peers, the Nawab had grand tastes, coupled with the necessary wealth to indulge them. A good example is the wonderfully ornate and, for the time, risqué bed that he anonymously commissioned from La Maison Christofle in Paris. This had a rosewood frame embellished with almost a third of a ton of chased silver. At each corner stood a life-sized automaton of a naked Caucasian woman, spring-mounted and powered by a musical box sited beneath the mattress. When downward pressure was applied to the centre of the bed, the musical box played Charles Gounod's 'Le Damnation de Faust', and in doing so energised the springs beneath the automations causing the 'women' to flutter their eyes and cool the occupant(s) with horsehair fans.
The Nawab's term of governance was considered a good and just one by the majority of his people. He died 14th February 1899 and the title passed to his son Muhammad Bhahawal Khan V.
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Estimate £1,200-1,600
S2