Product Details
THE PROPERTY OF SIR MAX HASTINGS
HENRY ATKIN
A PAIR OF 12-BORE SPRING-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTORS serial no. 3210 / 1,
28in. nitro chopperlump barrels, ribs gold-inlaid '1' and '2' and engraved 'HENRY ATKIN LTD (FROM PURDEY'S). 88 JERMYN ST. LONDON. S.W.', 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. 1/4 and 1/2 choke, wall thicknesses below recommended minimum, toplevers gold-inlaid '1' and '2', automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details, removable striker discs, spring opening actions based on the Beesley / Purdey 1880 patent with 1909 model improved ejectors, best fine acanthus scroll engraving with floral bouquets, the undersides with 'HENRY ATKIN FROM PURDEY'S' in an oval, retaining traces of original colour-hardening, 15 3/4in. replacement stocks, weight 6lb. 6oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly confirmed that this pair was completed in 1937 as "Sidelock Ejector 'Purdey pattern' ( Spring Openers ) 28" barrels.
Sir Max Hastings, former editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, is well-known as the author of many books about both history and the countryside, and has been a shooting man all his life. His father, Macdonald Hastings, also wrote extensively about firearms and country sports. Sir Max has used this pair of Atkins for more than twenty years: 'They are lovely, perfectly-balanced guns which have given me enormous pleasure through hundreds of shooting days. They never miss- I am the only one who does. For me, side-by-sides possess a special beauty and grace: they are works of art, where over-and-unders seem tools by comparison. I am reluctantly parting with these guns now, only because in my 'seventies I have taken to using lighter twenty bores. I hope that they will now provide another sportsman with half the joy that I have had from them'.
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Estimate £5,000-7,000
S2 - Sold as a Section 2 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act