Auctions in the UK continue to do good business, although as I hear reflected in conversation with one auctioneer this week, the good times are perhaps behind us.
However, he did recall men of his father’s generation saying the same thing in the early 1980s!
The fact remains that here in Britain we have a legislature, a media and a network of police forces, which are all, in subtly different way and for slightly different reasons, antipathetic towards gun ownership and shooting as a recreation.
The largely negative press we see every time a crime happens involving a firearm leads to inevitable calls for a ‘quick fix’ and that is always further restrictions on gun ownership.
Shooting faces pressure from the so-called ‘animal welfare’ lobby which would prefer to see no animals ever die, and certainly not while human participants are enjoying their sport. In an increasingly urbanised and house-bound population, their simplistic please are all too easily digested.
An impending ban on lead shot (and lead bullets for hunting anything bigger than rabbits) has caused many owners to jettison long-treasured guns and not all will replace them.
Police over-reach in licence applications is commonplace and apparently un-checked and without penalty. Too many chief constables appear to take the view that every gun owner removed is one fewer relationship they can make errors with and get blamed when they do not apply the laws and guidelines already on the statutes, as is often the case when the origins of a shooting are investigated.
Gradual application of greater security requirements and a restriction on the number of guns held quietly applies more pressure and cost to gun ownership.
A combination of these factors has led to a decrease in the numbers of FAC and SGC holders across the United Kingdom.
In the short term this has meant auctions are full of low grade guns that people have been clearing out. Holt’s sealed bids auction reflects this with thousands of guns and rifles offered every four months.
The success of Holt’s and other auction houses like Gavin Gardiner over the years has been based on digging out unwanted guns from the gun rooms and cabinets of families who have owned them for decades or more and bringing them to market.
The best of it has, for years, been hoovered up by American collectors. It rarely, if ever, comes back. There are now significant American auctioneers recycling the British guns there at the higher prices achieved there and further disincentivising British buyers from repatriating anything.
The sealed bids shed is a jumble of everything and it can be discombobulating. Among the gems I dug out from the racks was a.22 rimfire converted Lee Speed, a nice little Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbine and a Schneider-patent Daw (the first ever centre-fire gun to be sold in Britain).
I doubt anyone has the time of focus to really sort out what is here and worth a serious bid. The only strategy I have worked is to make a catalogue shortlis tand go carefully through everything itemsed.It takes some discipline and I'm sure things I would jump on in isolation get lost in teh sheer volume.
Still, every four months we still have. sale at Holt’s to look forward to and Gavin Gardiner , Southams, Wilson55, Lonsdales and others add to the variety. Holt’s however, remains the place with the biggest and widest-ranging sales of sporting guns and rifles.
I habitually drive to King’s Lynn the night before viewing and view the next day. This April, I did exactly that and spent a day taking in the guns on offer. What is clear is that British guns for sale in the UK right now are great value.
A new Purdey cost £140,000 plus VAT last time I looked. Holt’s sold a near perfect 1988 12-bore Purdey with all its original case colour and laquer, leather-cased with all accessories, a canvas cover and an aluminium outer case for airline travel. 28” barrels 15 1/2” stock and thoroughly representative of the classic Purdey game gun. It sold for £14,500 on the hammer.
Hammer guns have been avidly collected now since something of a revival in the late 1990s. As a result, few really good ‘sleepers’ emerge these days but for interesting but not quite perfect ones, prices are very tempting. You just need to buy carefully. A lot of badly restored or tatty guns by famous names still don’t represent a good deal. See the article on the Westley Richards from this sale for an example.
However, boxlocks are a steal. Today, £500 will buy you a good one, £1,000 a very good one and £2,000 an as-new beautiful, best quality one at auction.
a client bought a lovely flintlock by Joseph Manton for £5,500
The one area of the market still attracting a lot of interest is the off-ticket collectable quality antique firearms. Every time a cartridge chambering gets added to the Obsolete Calibre list, the price of those rifles rises. Some collectors simply don’t want the hassle of a firearms certificate.
I noted a beautiful John Manton percussion gun and a client bought a lovely flintlock by Joseph Manton for £5,500 on the hammer. It was, overall, a very interesting sale, though somewhat lacking on really big ticket items.
Holt’s do get their pricing right and almost always sell upwards of 85% on the day, with deals following to clear-up the remainder via the on-line post-sale selling system.
Later in the month I headed to Gavin Gardiner’s in West Sussex, where I saw another tempting array of interesting guns. These days it is interesting that impresses me, rather than top-end modern best sellers. Holt’s however, had a pair that fitted both descriptions and someone paid £20,000 plus commission for them. They were 16-bore percussion guns by Dickson for Charles Gordon, complete in case with every accessory. Unique.
It will be interesting to see how the market continues to develop as the reality of the lead shot ban lands and people have to decide how to handle it.
I for one, will continue to find my pleasure in discovering and shooting the fantastic sporting heritage of guns our forefathers have left us. Auctions continue to showcase them at regular intervals and I hope that remains the case for years to come.
Published by Vintage Guns Ltd on
