Dave K: Yes, I guess that you could say that I do "bird dog" for Charlton Hall, and proud of it too. CH has been in the antique auction business, a bit longer than some of the houses mentioned
They have almost always had one or a few guns in each auction. A few years back I bought a beautiful cased Purdey hammergun there that came from a local estate. I still have it. When Ron Long decided to do a Sporting Sale two years ago, partly because of our long association and partly because I was close at hand, he called on me to help him with the guns and I was glad to do so.
He is smart enough to know and readily admits it, that he doesn't know beans about fine guns and was smart enough to get some folks on board like Diggory and perhaps myself who did. What he does have in an unimpeachable reputation in the antique auction business which gets him consignments that some of the others could only dream about. At a recent sale he had a gorgeous flintlock double barreled pistol by Nicholas Noel
Boutet, armourer to Louis XVI and Napoleon, which hit the hammer at $10,000. It was consigned from a California Estate. He has on the way for this December's Sporting Sale, the third, a consignment of over 200 long guns. I have no idea what they are yet but I'm told that they're coming from a very wealthy Texas estate along with a load of high-end antiques.
I, along with others here, do want to see CH succeed in this endevour and as long as each one gets a little better than the last I'm going to hang in there and root him on. New Hampshire, Illinois and San Francisco don't have a lock on all the fine guns
I continue to be amazed at what comes out of the Old South and even right here in our backyard.
Best Regards, George
