doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 1905 made Westley Richards with unusual history

Gentlemen,

just recently I received a Westley Richards boxlock shotgun with hand detachable locks in 12 ga, SN 16662 made in 1905. Cased with all accessories.



Although my main interest are guns made by J. P. Sauer & Sohn, Suhl, I ALWAYS wanted to own such a fine gun. For my opinion it's the epitome of an understatement shotgun: looks like a normal boxlock - but it isn't.

Now my dream came true - and I received more, than I ever expected: the gun ownership is fully documented as the gun comes directly from the first owner's great-grandson. The shotgun is an interesting piece of English-German family history.

But first of all, for

The Gun

According to Westley Richard's ledger, SN 16662 was sold on 11. July 1906 at the Birmingham shop to a F. Albrecht.





The gun has the famous hand-detachable locks for which John Deeley and Leslie Bown Taylor (WR's managing director at that time) received British patent No.17,731 of 1897. The early guns with the hand-detachable locks (like #16662) had a fully removable cover plate, while the later guns (from 1908 on?) had a hinged cover plate (The hinged cover plate was subject of British patent 23,088 of 1908, filed in British Patent Office on 30. October 1908).

#16662 has the patented selective single trigger (Leslie Bown Taylor's British patent No. 11,062 of 1901; inventor: Allan Edward Lard, Buchanan County, MO, USA), fine scroll engravings and the usual features of such a model of that period.

Cont�d



















I always thought, the steel corners at the butt of the stock would be screwed directly to the wood. But no, there is a very thin plate of horn covering the stock's butt.

Cont�d

The case and the accessories



The case is the original oak with leather case still having the name/address of F. Albrecht on the front of the lid.





Condition is quiet nice - only the straps were missing and are new, as well as the handle. Internally, the original felt still is present as well as the original labels.




Accessories are complete and original including the cleaning rod, brushes and mops, a tube of Eley's Maxwax, snap caps, oil bottle and a tin box containing a Selvyt impregnated pad for cleaning the hand-detachable locks.









Said tin already was subject of another thread:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=254157&page=1

Cont�d

The first owner and his gun

Frank Albrecht bought the gun in 1906, but already in 1908 he had a problem with it and sent it to Westley Richards with a complaint. Obviously, the gun wasn't faulty at all - if we believe what Westley Richard's manager Douglas J. P. (John Perks) Haines wrote in a two-sided letter to Frank Albrecht.






For better convenience, here's the plain text of the letter:

�Birmingham, 29th October 1908

F. Albrecht, Esq.
Brooklea
Ledsham
W. Chester


Sir,

We duly received your gun and are pleased to report that there is no breakage. If the forend was properly put on, we do not think it would be possible for it to have fallen off and this is what we understand you to say happened. If the gun is fired and the forend taken off, with the gun open, the ejecting hammers which would be cocked in the ordinary way by the closing of the gun, are let down and it is impossible to put the forend on the gun again until these have been cocked. A simple method of cocking them is to pull out the extractors with your fingers to their full extend, place the forend on the barrels, and press back the extractors by pushing them with your thumb, this cocks the little hammers which hit against the two extractors.

We enclose the directions for cocking the detachable locks if the hammer should be let down when cleaning them - it is important to see that the limbs are pressed close to the plate.

We have stripped and carefully examined the gun and we feel sure that there is nothing the matter with it and that the trouble for which you sent it back has been occasioned either by taking the forend off the gun with the barrels open or through the forend falling off the gun when closing it up after it had been discharged through negligence in not properly pressing the forend home when putting the gun together.

We return the gun tonight.

We are, sir,

your obedient servants

Douglas J. P. Haines, Manager�

As mentioned in the letter, �directions for cocking the detachable locks� were enclosed - and still are present:




I don't know, how long and how intensive Frank Albrecht used his gun. At least, he did.




The gun must have been shipped to WR in later years again, as a shipping sticker from Westley Richards with the 23 Conduit Street address in London (from 1914 on?) still is present on the case.

Cont�d

The first owner and his family

Thanks to the seller, we have the relevant portion of Frank Albrecht's family tree.



Frank George Carl Hermann Adolf Albrecht was born in 1860 in Bremerv�rde in the Kingdom of Hannover, Germany (after 1866 belonging to the Province of Hannover, Kingdom of Prussia). He left Germany (exact date unknown) and emigrated to England, where he received British citizenship in 1896. In Liverpool he was doing business as Cotton and General Merchant acting as "F. Albrecht & Co.". He had two children left back in Germany (for unknown reasons); one of which (his daughter Elsa) was born in 1896. Frank Albrecht died on 22. April 1950 in London.

In England, four more children of Frank were born, i. a. his son Charles Reginald Clayton Albrecht who was born in 1905. Charles (the only hunter of Frank's English children) was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Artillery in WWII, decorated with the "Order of the British Empire" (Officer). He met his German brothers and sisters in 1946 in the North of Germany.

Before he died (in 1999), Charles Albrecht sold the Westley Richards in 1984 to his German nephew Konrad K. who was the only other hunter of the family - Charles' two sons were no hunters and weren't interested in guns. Konrad K. gave the shotgun to his son Eckardt in 1999, who's also a hunter. Finally, Eckardt. K. sold the gun in 2011 to my father.

Reason was: "I have too many excellent guns and can�t keep them all". So, after 105 years the gun left the Albrecht family.

Konrad K. has photos of Frank Albrecht, as well as of Charles Albrecht. Hopefully, we will get the chance for obtaining good scans of said photos soon.

Something about prices in 1906

It's quiet different to get a feeling about the prices in 1906 and how to compare these with nowadays values. But due to the internet this problem can be solved.

First of all, I found a period WR catalog here:

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/Library/BookPage.aspx?bid=FW0002466&sid=862&pid=1

The catalog is approximately of 1908 (the date May 1908 is mentioned on page 73 - it will be not later than 1910, as Edward VII. still is mentioned). On page 14 the prices for the shotgun with hand-detachable locks are listed as follows:

Price for a gun: � 65
Price for a case: � 3 and 10 shillings (=� 3.5)
Price for cleaning rods, oil etc: � 1 and 10 shillings (=� 1.5)

Total: � 70

Now, my problem was: I never dealt with prices in British Pound in 1906.

But I found:

http://measuringworth.com/exchangeglobal/

with this you can calculate the exchange rate of the US$ to a particular currency (i. a. Mark, Pound, French Franc) of a particular year. And the exchange rate in 1906 was:

1$ = 4.2 Mark
1 $ = 0.21 �
1 � = 4.87 $
1 � = 20.45 Mark


This means for 1906:

Price for a case: � 3 and 10 shillings (=� 3.5) = 17.05 $ = 71.59 Mark
Price for cleaning rod, oil etc: � 1 and 10 shillings (=� 1.5)= 7.31$ = 30.68 Mark
Price for a gun: � 65 = 316.55$ = 1329.51 Mark

Total: � 70 = 349. 90$ = 1431.78 Mark

I don't have a feeling for the $ of de jour, but I have for the Mark. And 1432 Marks were a lot of money! The most expensive Sauer shotgun according to Sauer's 1906 catalog was available for 650 Marks (a model XVIII in �Meisterwerk� quality).

Hope, you enjoyed this quiet long article as I do enjoy the gun!

Best regards

Martin

That was truely interesting. Fine bit of research and a fine gun.Thank you

Congratulations on such a wonder gun!!!! What a wonderful example of a droplock Westley. You should be very proud as I know you are. The histoy behind this gun is simply outstanding and IMO adds quite a bit of worth to her. As we say in my part of the country "You done good!"

Thanks for posting the gun and all the history, I know I appreciate it!

I wish you many long and happy years shooting her in good health!

Thanks!

Greg

A remarkable gun with an equally remarkable heritage. Thanks for sharing it with us. Gil

What a marvellous find Martin, you don't come across shotguns of that age and condition every day. Excellent pictures and a history well documented.

Being born myself in the era before the British Pound went Metric and long before the creation of the Euro, I can well remember dealing in the old British Currency of Pounds, Shillings and Pence (proper money).

To give our American friends the US prices at the 1906 rate of exchange of US$ 4.90 to the British Pound.

Then the shotgun at �65/00/00 would equal...US$ 318.50
The case at �3/10/00 would equal............US$ 17.15
The cleaning tools at �1/10/00 would equal..US$ 7.35
A grand total of US$ 343.00 plus shipping.

A lot of money for the average British and US citizen given the average factory workers pay in those days of eight to ten US dollars per week.

Harry