Product Details
* ALEXr. HENRY
A RARE .577/.450 MARTINI-HENRY BLACK POWDER EXPRESS 1882 PATENT ROTARY-UNDERLEVER SIDELOCK NON-EJECTOR DOUBLE RIFLE, serial no. 6200,
27in. black powder only barrels with Henry rifling, broad matt rib, open sights and bead foresight, engraved 'ALEXR. HENRY. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. MAKER TO THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES AND DUKE OF EDINBURGH', rotary-underlever with replacement screw, Henry patent action, patent no. 5273 of 1882, standing breech with an oval engraved 'HENRY'S PATENT NO.140', manual safety, white metal 'SAFE' plaque, back-action lockplates with external cocking indicator levers, gold-inlaid 'cocked.' details, (cocking mechanism defective), best beaded and ropework borders and fine scroll engraving, reblued finish overall, 14in. figured pistolgrip stock with cheekpiece, engraved pistolgrip-cap (with trap), sling eyes and steel heel and toe plates, grip fore-end release catch, missing extractor cam, weight 8lb. 4oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly informed us that this rifle was completed in .450 calibre in September 1888 for the Marquis of Winchester.
Henry William Montague Paulet, 16th Marquess of Winchester was born in October 1862 into the noble family whose principal family seat was Amport House. He was schooled at R.N.A. Gosport before embarking on a series of extended safaris to indulge his love of hunting. He spent time in North America, India and the far east before heading to South Africa in 1891. Here he met the celebrated Cecil Rhodes and the two become good friends and hunting companions.
His elder brother, the 15th Marquess, died from wounds received at the Battle of Magersfontein during the First Boer War in 1899 and so he succeeded to the title.
During the Great War, Winchester was commissioned into the 3rd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment and later became a Major in the 13th Rifle Brigade, under the umbrella of the B.E.F. where he served from 1915 to 1917.
In the following decade he entered in various business ventures with Clarence Hatry, investing large sums of his family money. Hatry famously turned-out to be a crook of note and confessed to fraud and forgery on a grand scale. Though Winchester was looked-upon as the innocent party (a prominent judge described him as a "Person of honesty and integrity") he was implicated in Hatry's wrongdoings and was made bankrupt in November 1930, soon after the Wall Street Crash. Following this Winchester lived mostly abroad, although he was discharged from bankruptcy two years later.
For over a year before his death, Winchester had been the oldest member of the House of Lords since its inception and was aged 99 when he died on 28th June 1962 in Monte Carlo.
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Estimate £2,500-3,500