A Royal warrant is granted by the Monarch or her immediate household. I think Purdey's hold the Royal warrant as Gunmaker to Her Majesty and also H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh and also H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. Hollands used to hold the same to King George V. Hull Cartridge Company hold the Royal warrant as cartridge suppliers.
In the case of my Fuller I think that he may have just made a gun once which he presented to the Prince Consort as a gift which at least then entitled him to say he was a Gunmaker to His Royal Highness without holding a warrant. It wasn't a lie and sounded good. I don't think he was alone with this idea.
If you play around with this site it should answer some questions:
http://www.royalwarrant.org/ this may also explain a bit:
http://search.bt.com/result?p=royal+warrant&fr=slv8-bt-odtb If you just put Royal Warrant in the search engine it comes up with loads of information.
I will photograph the Fuller and come back to this thread again soon. Lagopus.....
