UPDATE: Results are in from the James D. Julia October sale, and Contributing Editor David Trevallion's Purdey No. 208 sold for nearly the low and high estimates combined. Estimated in the sale catalog as likely worth $10,000 to $15,000, the winning bid was $22,500. With Julia's 15% buyer's commission, the winning bidder will pay $25,875 for the gun. — E.C.
Purdey No. 208 — the fifth-earliest gun known extant from the storied London maker — will be auctioned at James D. Julia’s October sale of fine guns. The gun is owned by Shooting Sportsman Contributing Editor David Trevallion and was the subject of the feature article “Purdey No. 208 — Examining one of the oldest surviving Purdeys” in the November/December 2014 issue. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Gunmakers Company Charitable Trust, which supports the apprenticeships of young gunmakers in the UK.
Photographs courtesy of James D. Julia Auctioneers.
The gun started out as a 14-bore flintlock circa. 1820 with stub-twist-steel barrels, but was converted to percussion around 1830. Trevallion apprenticed with and worked at Purdey’s before emigrating to the U.S.; Bill O’Brien, the craftsman he was apprenticed to, had restored No. 208 and another early gun on his own time in the early 1960s. The company gave O’Brien No. 208, and he eventually passed it on to Trevallion.
Vic Venters is one of many good reasons to read and re-read SS magazine. One of the best gun writers extant, IMO.
We agree wholeheartedly, Francis.