Text and photos by Felix Neuberger / WIP
I am emptying my knowledge basket and to make it no too dry
I will add some polemics.
End 1970's I found and bought a Purdey (nr. 20225) with
scrap barrels in a skyscrapper - of continental dimension -
in the Czech town of Hradec Kralove (in German: Königgrätz).
This is the town where the Prussian army in 1866 defeated
the Austrian and from then on Prussian de rigueur dominance
commenced until today.
The reason for the defeat quite simply outdated technology
and bureaucracy.
I had the gun rebarrelled by Purdeys. A late friend of mine
had a relative who worked as metallurgist in a steelwork
on the Balkans, who offered to make the analysis of the
scrap barrel.
We simply wanted to know whats behind this "Whitworth fluid
pressed steel".
Whitworth, an English giant like Isaac Newton or James Cook
or Frederick Beesley and in this context a phrase which
melts on the tongue like Chablis or Haut Brion.
So here is the result:
C..0,67%, S..0,0155%, Mn..0,6%, Si..0,21%, Ni,Cr,W,Mo all
at 0%.
The order was also for microstructure and surface- and core-
hardness.I dont have these anymore or were not done at all.
When looking at my university documentation this is a
CK60 in old German terms, today the
5-digit German nr. 1.1221.
Quite simply a demystified very clean Carbon-steel.
..
Rebarreling a Purdey today
When I asked last time a man from the Purdey gunshop
department on todays rebarreling costs the answer was
its 23000 GBP or about 28000 Euro.
If you put such a rebarreled gun into the next auction
you will probably get a third of the price you paid
for rebarreling.
For this amount you would get a quartette of black-widow
Parazzis, with a bespoke stock as per your measurements
in Brescia and your local Perazzi dealer/agent will deliver them free and with pleasure to your door.
These could be a pair of game guns for Warter Priory or
the Scottish Highlands or Zidlochovice/Czechia plus a skeet and a trap gun.
One may think that the Purdey price is a prohibitive one
as they want to direct their resources to the more
lucrative new-product segment.
Another alternative, contact one of the free-lance
barrelmaker with ex-Purdey/Holland background (UK,France)
and for abount 8000 GBP/Euro you will get best barrel work.
If you put it into the next auction you will loose something
but probably not two thirds.
Third option is to sleeve.
Estimate today ca 1800 GBP, the wellknown sleever for the
London trade makes good work. You have to tell them barrel
thickness or you may end up with too heavy barrels.
Transport in/out of UK is about 700 Euro with any
of these options.
..
We were told that with the common European market there will
be free capital/goods/people movement.
The reality is I have to ask for export permission in my
country plus there is a corresponding import permission
in the receiving country and vice versa and in need for
a broker in UK.
This is the same procedure/bureaucracy as in place when I
bought a gun in commie country Czechia end of the 1970's .
But this was an enemy country then.
But who has allowed to let this bureaucratic junk
happen in post-commie free Europe?
The answer I got years ago from the Purdey admin lady
telling "We are such a small trade, we have no leverage".
..
Given this price structure it makes sense to keep your
barrels well protected.
My experience as to the best gun/barrel protection are
hard long guncases.
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/51370I have two of them, one is a vintage F.Faukner from Prague,
the other one a newish built 20 years ago by a retired Austrian postman.
Handling is not at all "cool" like with the ubiquitous
plastic/foam cases, but it is a solid protection.
..
What will brexit now bring to the unbeloved overseas-continental folks.
Outsourcing to "independant shippers" seems to be the new formula in the English auction-world.
What almost amazes me is the fact that the world famous
Cullinan diamond of Her Imperial Majesty crown jewels
has been mailed by a regular Royal-mail parcel
and it worked perfectly.
..
Austria has not only a president elect but since few
months also a new PM. He graduated in the science of
communication and is a smart guy.
He has the rare capability to explain you in 3 minutes
Albert Einstein's Special Relativity Theory and you are
convinced then that you understand it.
At his last 2 hours sunday-pitch he told to the world
that he wants to
- create new jobs
- cut down on bureaucracy
(Am waiting with baited breath what this means for a
collector)
- increase legacy- and asset-taxes.
(The greatest landowners (15%)in the eastern Austrian
province are "Fürst Esterhazy'sche Privatstiftung"
located in Liechtenstein and the Catholic church.)
How will he do that ??
