THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD’S DOUBLE RIFLE
FOR the British gunmaker, especially the bespoke London gunmaker, one of the most important markets was India. In particular, the princes of India, those rulers of the Indian Native States; the maharajahs, nawabs and rajas. Under British rule, there were always two Indias: the India administered by the central government in Delhi; and a separate India of the princes, who were independent but ‘advised’ by the British. Even as late as the end of World War II, the hereditary rulers of India still held sway over a third of India and a quarter of its population. Indian princes were among the richest men in the world at the turn of the century, with states and populations as large as many nations in Western Europe. Hyderabad, for instance, had an income and expenditure equal to that of Belgium. It was also the first state in India to become a British protectorate and the young (first) Duke of Wellington was chief advisor to the Nizam of Hyderabad’s army when it fought alongside the British at Seringapatam in 1799.
It was these princes who gunmakers such as Westley Richards, Purdey and Holland & Holland marketed their sporting guns to. Holland & Holland double rifles, built in a variety of calibres up to four-bore, were renowned for their quality and as a consequence were in particular demand. This double-barrelled rifle was made as a 10-bore with a treble-grip action-body, a Jones rotary underlever and rebounding hammers set on beautifully engraved back-action locks. It is engraved on the rib: ‘Made Expressly for His Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan’.
The rifle was completed in October 1887 for the then Nizam, Asaf Jah VI Mir
Mahboob Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi (1866-1911), who became the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad at two years seven months, reigning from 1869 until his death, aged 45, in 1911. He was also the first Nizam to be exposed to a western, in this case English, education and was a ruler interested in the welfare of his people. Being extremely wealthy he could indulge his passions, one of which was hunting for which he acquired an extensive personnel armoury. He lived an extravagant lifestyle with considerable collections of cars and clothes. (He devoted an entire wing of his palace to his wardrobe.) He was a loyal customer of Holland & Holland, the maker of this double rifle.
Between 1884 and 1897 he ordered at least 16 firearms, ranging in calibre from the enormous and painful four-bore to small rook rifles chambered in .360 Rook. They were often ordered as a series of four and numbered 1 to 4. Almost all of them were ordered through an agent, Rogers, Rock & Co, Merchants and East India Agents, based in London’s Cheapside. They specialised in supplying goods and services to the princes of India, the Nizam being but one of several. The Nizam’s favourite calibre appears to have been the 10-bore: he ordered at least five rifles in this calibre, either as a standard rifle or as a Paradox rifle, in which the last 3in or 4in are rifled, thus allowing the gun to fire both shot and ball.
By the mid-1970s, the Nizam’s armoury had been dispersed, enabling the Royal Armouries to acquire this rifle in 1995.
The 10-bore rifle can be viewed in the Hunting Gallery at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, the national museum of arms and armour. Entry is free. Check opening times at: royalarmouries.org