doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Nice Wee 28 Beesley at Holts

Holts upcoming December auction has a nice little 28 bore boxlock ejector. Details and photos are here: http://auctions.holtsauctioneers.com/asp...005&image=2

The gun was bought in to Beesley's shop in 1919. The 27" Siemens steel barrels had been provided by Thomas Kilby in Birmingham. Damascus and Laminated Steel barrels from Thomas Kilby & Son, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham were used by several American makers (with both British and Lindner actions) including William and James Donn, George T. Abbey and Edwin Thomas Jr. of Chicago, and Martin F. Kennedy of St. Paul.

The barrels had been sent over to John Harper at 28 Whittall Street, still in Birmingham, where he made up the rest of the gun. Along with 9 other small bore shotguns in the same batch, the gun was collected by Frederick Beesley's son Herbert, who had responsibility for liaising with John Harper and who made frequent trips to Birmingham. The gun was then finished off in the Beesley London workshop.

On the 31 August 1921 the gun was packed up into its bespoke Bryant case and handed over to its new owner, Sir Alfred Butt. Sir Alfred paid Beesley �50 for his new gun; it had cost Beesley �26 to make! Judging by the dimensions of the gun, it is probably a fair assumption that the gun was destined to be used by Butt's young son, or perhaps his (small?) wife. Butt had US connections. He was a theatre impresario and was responsible for bringing numerous American stars to London, including award-winning actress Tallulah Bankhead.

Beesley was still turning out his best quality sidelocks and refining the Shotover, his Under & Over design at this time, but he was shortly to retire and let Herbert run the business, alongside his long-time manager Richard Street. It is interesting to see from the ledger that in the aftermath of the Great War Beesley rapidly rebuilt his stock of guns, in hopeful anticipation of better times, though they proved short-lived. Like all British gunmakers, Beesley had been restricted in what he could turn out, especially between 1916 and 1918, when all new sporting gun manufacture was halted, though special licences were available for exceptional cases.

Tim

What a gun! Bobby

Wee little gun, ey wot? Provenance that ties it to Wee Willie Winky, perchance??

Interesting gun, and interesting discussion about the British gun trade after WWI. I've had discussions with others about that period. Those discussions included a fair amount of speculation that the market for new guns might have suffered when guns belonging to those who did not return from France were offered for sale. Hence the push during that period to come up with something just a little different: Churchill's XXV, the 12-20, the 2" 12ga, etc.

Tim, thanks for that interesting provenance. I have examples of the American makers you mention and I think all of them sport Westley Richards features. I have seen others with Lindner markings as you mention. All of the ones I have seen are of extremely high quality. I wonder how much of the work on the American named guns was done in America.

A good price considering the quality of that masterpiece is up in the stratosphere.

Nice perspective, Tim. Thanks for that.

I may be out of calibration, but I see it as follows. Brand Value two (BV2) for Beesley. Original Quality grade six (OQ6) for a second grade BLE. Current Condition level four (CC4) for a heavily used, but not abused gun.

BV2-OQ6-CC4 = $2,648 for a 12 bore. The spread above 2500BPS and the $ - BPS exchange rate equal premium for a 28 bore plus ding for a very short stock.

DDA

Sometimes I wished I was still under five foot tall, this gun would be great if I was. But the days of my using a 12 1/2" stock are well past and I hate the sight of two plus inch extensions. On top of that I suspect any extension that long will ruin the guns handling. But if you cold shoot a 14" gun a half inch extension ebony and a one inch leather covered pad might look very nice. Be a hell of a quail gun for those ten thousand dollar a day quail hunts.

I think this gun will far exceed the estimated bid range. This is an example of a low expected bid range that Holt's often uses to get more bidding. They post a expected bid that seems very low to get marginal bidders interested it trying to buy it. Hoping that in the end they have three or four or five very active bidders, mostly not on site. I think non sight bidders are more likely to over bid on a gun because they can not see any minor flaws and are buying mostly on faith of others viewing and evaluating the gun. Risky. Then the fight begins and when the dust settle two or more have run the final price up far beyond the posted estimated bid range. Been there and seen that.

We should get a pool going to guess the final winning bid price. The results could all go to this board. One thing for sure is that I wont be a bidder running up the price. I am too large for the gun and have no hopes of going backwards in size or age.