Product Details
FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF SIR BENJAMIN D'URBAN
JOSEPH EGG, LONDON
A GOOD, CASED 14-BORE SINGLE-BARRELLED SPORTING-GUN, serial no. 2372,
circa 1835, with browned triple-stage 32in. barrel, the top-flat signed in script 'JOSEPH EGG, PICCADILLY, LONDON' (rubbed), bead fore-sight, borderline and scroll engraved breech-block with white-metal vented plug, border and acanthus scroll engraved top-tang, borderline, scroll and gamescene engraved bar-action lock signed 'JOSEPH EGG, LONDON', slab-sided dolphin headed hammer, walnut half-stock chequered at the wrist, iron furniture, twin barrel keys with white-metal escutcheons and brass mounted mahogany ramrod, complete with its maker's walnut storage case, compartmented and lined in green baize and including a good Hawksley basket-weave pattern powder-flask, a powder measure and a wad-punch
Provenance: Sir Benjamin D'Urban was born in Halesworth, near Norwich, Norfolk in 1777. He began his service as a soldier in 1793 and later went on to fight in the Napoleonic wars, where he won distinction as a Quartermaster General. In 1820 he was sent to the west Indies as Governor of Antigua, and then in 1831 went across to the newly created colony of British Guiana (now Guyana).
After success in these roles he was appointed Governor and Commander of the Cape Colony in 1834, arriving in January of that year. He had strict instructions to maintain peace on the Eastern frontier and confine the white settlers to the Cape Colony west of the Fish River. Over the next eighteen months or so his orders were complicated by Boer farmers who crossed the Orange River to the north and east invading African territory in what became known as the Great Trek. D'Urban opposed this action and tried to counter it by establishing the principal that the Boers north of the Orange River still fell under British control. This led to the Cape of Good Hope Punishment Act of 1836, but realistically the Act was unenforceable. D'Urban's governership ended in 1837, but in 1835 the Port Natal had been re-named D'Urban (later simplified to 'Durban') in his honour. D'Urban himself ended his days in 1849 in Montreal, Canada aged 72.
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Estimate £1,000-1,500