Product Details
J. PURDEY & SONS
A 12-BORE SELF-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTOR, serial no. 15968,
for 1898, 30in. nitro reproved chopperlump barrels, the rib gold-inlaid '1' and engraved 'J. PURDEY & SONS. AUDLEY HOUSE. SOUTH AUDLEY STREET. LONDON. MADE OF SIR JOSEPH WHITWORTH'S FLUID-PRESSED STEEL.', 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. imp. cyl. and 1/4 choke, removable striker discs, toplever gold-inlaid '1', automatic safety with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' detail, 'arrow' cocking-indicators, articulated front trigger, fine border and acanthus scroll with floral bouquets, 15in. figured Prince of Wales pistolgrip stock with horn pistolgrip-cap, including 1 3/4in. wooden extension, fore-end gold-inlet '1' (some splits to fore-end wood), weight 6lb. 10oz., in its makers brass-cornered leather case
Provenance: The makers have kindly provided us with the following information:
Completed: 23rd March 1898
For: J. Barnard Hankey
Description: No. 1 of a pair of hammerless ejector game guns
Weight: 6lb. 8oz.
Calibre: 12-bore
Barrels: 30in. Whitworth Steel
Choke: Both Cylinder
Stock: 14 1/2in.
Notes:
Numbered '1' in gold on toplever, top rib and forend-tip
Semi-pistolgrip stock with horn cap
Our in black, 1897
23rd March 1908: 15968 had been repaired in Scotland. A very bad bruise in the left barrel, 5in. from the muzzle. Mr. Hankey pushed it out
Mr. Hankey noted as deceased, 1914
John Barnard Hankey (1845-1914) was born on 21 Apr 1845 at Fetcham Park, and was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford. In 1872 he married Fanny Helen Pratt Barlow.
Mr Hankey entered actively into the judicial and political life of Surrey. In 1879 he became High Sheriff of the County and for some years acted as a Justice of the Peace.
Barnard's interests were centred largely around sport. He was master of the Surrey Union foxhounds from 1876 to 1882, giving 'the greatest satisfaction, as his all-round sporting proclivities made him a general favourite'. Polo was played at Fetcham Park from 1892, when Barnard placed at the disposal of the Fetcham Park Club 'a full-sized and very picturesque ground in his park.' The shooting at Fetcham was the occasion for house parties, and the racing at the nearby courses at Epsom, Sandown and Ascot was the occasion for further entertainment. He would often take grouse shooting and fishing in Scotland, bringing with him a substantial staff to look after his family and guests. By contemporary accounts, Hankey was '…a great smoker, an excellent shot and a thorough English gentleman.'
Barnard's thirty-nine year ownership of Fetcham Park coincided with the peak of Victorian and Edwardian prosperity. He maintained a household of substantial size, and a standard of living which was high, even by the standards of the day. It was fortunate that his very substantial inheritance (and realisation of property assets) was able to support his family of nine children, his estate and household, sporting activities, house parties and entertainment. But income tax and death duties had already arrived, and the life-style of the rich was abruptly curtailed for ever with the declaration of war in 1914.
Barnard died in May of that year, and it was perhaps fortunate that he did not live to see the collapse of his world around him, and the sale of Fetcham Park and its remaining land within eleven years.
John Barnard Hankey died on 24 May 1914 and was buried at Fetcham
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Estimate £3,000-5,000
S2 - Sold as a Section 2 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act