Product Details
BOSS & CO.
A PAIR OF 12-BORE SINGLE-TRIGGER EASY-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTORS, serial no. 5521 / 2,
29in. nitro barrels, ribs engraved 'BOSS & CO. 73, ST. JAMES'S STREET. LONDON.', and gold-inlaid '1' and '2', 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. 1/4 choke in all, toplevers gold-inlaid '1' and '2', automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, Boss patent single triggers, rolled-edge triggerguards, best fine floral bouquet and acanthus scroll engraving, retaining traces of original colour-hardening and finish, 14 5/8in. highly-figured replacement stocks, gold escutcheons engraved with an 'F' surmounted by the coronet of an Earl, weight 6lb. 9oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly confirmed that the guns were completed with single triggers and 29in. barrels in 1908 for Earl Fitzwilliam
William ("Billy") Charles de Meuron Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam D.S.O. (born 25th July 1872 - died 15th February 1943) was a Captain of the 4th Battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry, served as Aide de Camp to Lord Lansdowne, Viceroy of India 1893-94 and as a Captain on the Headquarter's Staff in the Second Boer War in 1900 (where he was awarded the D.S.O.).
He sat in the House of Commons for Wakefield from 1895-1902 and was appointed High Sheriff of Rutland 1898 - 99
The only member of the family not to be born and witnessed at the family seat of Wentworth Woodhouse, one of the largest private homes in Europe, he was born in Pointe de Meuron, Ontario, Canada (which would prove to be a point of serious controversy later, accusations of him in fact being a changeling would subsequently lead to litigation between rival heirs and the eventual end of the title)
The Fitzwilliam family had become one of the weathiest in the country, their prime source of income provided by the family owned land sitting partially on the Barnsley seam, Yorkshire's most famous and richest coalfield with a history of mining back as far as the Roman period.
The Fitzwilliams are recorded as being granted permission to mine in 1367 and for generations stood out as being exemplary coal owners, held in very high regard by their employees. By the 17th century, Wentworth Woodhouse had been built. The largest private house in the United Kingdom, it covered two and a half acres, with over two hundred rooms and more than two hundred and fifty thousand square feet of floorspace.
For further information on the fascinating history of the family and the appalling political vendetta that brought about its demise, see Tim Rayment's article 'The Mansion of Mystery and Malice' published in The Sunday Times, February 2007.
For more fascinating insight into the social history of Wentworth, please see 'Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty' by Catherine Bailey
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Estimate £20,000-25,000
S2