Always looking for a deal, I look for small auctions with nice guns. I spend a lot of time looking, and occasionally it pays off. Well I find a small local auction with some guns. There is one table with 3 Westley Richards. 2 of the 3 are a "pair" identical and only 1 sn in between the two. I'm not sure if the middle one was seperated or what. Anyways, 3 beautiful Westly Richards, all 40's guns (I believe), with drop locks, heavly engraved with lots of case color. One looked unfired. So I am drooling over these guns and another guy starts taking a look. We start to chat, and eventually I ask him if he will be competition. He says maybe. So I think to myself, what can I do to discourage him from bidding.
I told him these were complex guns, and if anything should go wrong, they would be expensive fixes. One of the ejectors wasn't right, although I couldn't tell what was wrong. He agrees, but he tells me not to worry, he has a good gunsmith up in NH. So I was thinking, maybe he uses Mr.Hutton, the gunsmith and many others on this forum use. I ask him who, and he responds, and I quote, "An old timer, a real expert Ed Landers. I have had him work on some of my other stuff."
When I awoke on the floor of the auction house, people were asking me if I was ok. Well, I didn't pass out, but, it did make me feel sick. As gently as I could, I urged him to look into Ed as smith before using him anymore. He grunted, thinking I was some uppity young'un trying to tell him what to do.
Every time I close my eyes I am haunted of Master gunsmith Ed Landers going to work on this pair!
The horror, the horror!
