Collectors’ items and rarities
Robert Morgan looks at the vagaries of gun collecting and how things have changed over the years
Gun collecting is a funny old game. You can wait years to see a particular type of revolver, for instance, and I will bet once you have seen one you will see more within a short space of time. I suppose this “like buses” phenomenon must occur in other collecting fields but it does seem particularly prevalent in gun collecting circles.
A few issues ago I talked about a flintlock shotgun that had once been in the collection of the renowned British gun collector William Keith Neal. Well, in accordance with the unwritten rule mentioned above, I have subsequently consigned about another 30 pieces to auction. Admittedly, when one considers the size of Neal’s collection this is but a small drop in the ocean. Even so, to my knowledge it is the largest group of his guns that have stayed together up until now. We will examine some of the individual pieces in detail in forthcoming issues, but one thing that has come to light is that apparently gun collecting came quite easily to collectors in bygone years.
Record keeper
Take, for instance, this beautiful cased single-barrelled flintlock sporting gun by the famous maker John Manton (below). Made in 1808, it remains in exemplary condition, as indeed do many ex W Keith Neal guns. It would happily form the centrepiece of any collection of fine sporting guns and on the open market today would command a not insignificant four-figure sum, and that is before any extra was added on for the ex-Neal ownership. So, how did Neal acquire this piece? Well, fortunately for us, Neal was an inveterate record keeper and often wrote a note on the acquisition of the guns in his collection. These notes can sometimes be found rolled up and poked into the barrel or folded up and stored in the gun case, if there was one.
In this instance a typed note was pinned inside the lid of the case and reads: “This gun came to me from Dick Cooper. He saw the gun in a shop window in Farnborough while driving down the street in his tank, during the war, about 1940. He stopped his tank and bought the gun and showed it to me later at Boodles. He said, ‘Keith, this is your gun.’ At this time Dick was on active service with the 4th Royal Tank Regiment.”
Rare occurrence
No suggestion of money changing hands is mentioned and I strongly suspect that none did. While this gun is prime collecting material today, in 1940 it was “just another old gun” and I would imagine that Mr Cooper paid very little for it, especially during the war. It was more of a case of “saw this, thought of you” and it would appear Neal acquired a fair number of pieces in this
fashion, early on at any rate. Nowadays, inheritance aside, this seems to be a bit of a rare occurrence; I think I have only been given three guns in my lifetime, but I am sure this is more due to the price of collectable guns these days than a lack of charity.
Different time
It does also paint a picture of a different time. Bearing in mind that there was a war on, but I wonder what would happen today if you decided to trundle a tank down Farnborough high street, stop it, jump out and buy a gun that just happened to be on display in a shop window. A very different reaction would result,
I think. I also wonder if the shop was even a gun shop. I clearly remember a customer of mine telling me how he bought two cased guns, one a 12-bore Westley Richards double percussion and the other a .36 Colt Navy percussion revolver, from an Oxfam shop in the early 1960s for the princely sum of £2 each. Happier days, perhaps.
“Neal’s notes can be found rolled up and poked into the barrel or stored in the case”