LONDON.- A fine Purdey hammer gun made for Agustín Fernando Muñoz (1808 – 1873), the second husband of the Regent of Spain, Maria Christina, is to be auctioned in the Modern Sporting Guns sale on 5 December 2014, at the
Bonhams saleroom in Knightsbridge. The gun, completed in 1877, is estimated at £10,000 – 15,000.
Muñoz was raised in humble surroundings in Tarancón, a small municipality in the province of Cuenca. Keen to avoid following his father into the tobacco industry, he enlisted in the royal bodyguard and relocated to Madrid. It was there that Muñoz came into contact with Maria Christina, and fell in love with her.
Accounts of how Muñoz attracted the attention of the Queen vary: according to one, he courageously stopped the runaway horses pulling her carriage with her trapped inside; according to another, he simply picked up the handkerchief which she had dropped behind her. Whichever it was, it certainly worked – King Ferdinand died on 29 September 1833, and on 28 December, less than three months after his death, Maria and Muñoz were married.
The couple were forced to keep their marriage secret – Maria would have been obliged to forfeit her regency had it been publicly acknowledged – but in reality the union was well known within the Spanish court. Indeed, it was so widely accepted that, when the soldiers on duty at the summer palace mutinied and demanded that Maria grant a constitution, they immediately threatened to shoot Muñoz in order to overcome her initial reluctance.
But the pressure of hiding the marriage eventually became too great. In 1940, Maria abdicated, and the couple fled in exile to France, where they took up residence at Château de Malmaison, a magnificent country-house a few miles from Paris. They would not return until the overthrow of General Baldomero Espartero, after which the marriage was publicly recognised.
The gun, described by Bonhams Head of Modern Sporting Guns, Patrick Hawes, as ‘an very fine and collectable Purdey hammer gun,’ is the first of a pair of top-lever guns with rebounding sidelocks, percussion fences, and bouquet foliate-scroll engraving commissioned by Muñoz. It features highly-figured stock with engraved heel and toe plates, and 30-inch damascus barrels bearing the engraving, ‘J. Purdey & Sons, 314½ Oxford Street, London.’ It will be auctioned in its brass-mounted oak and leather case with ivory accessories.
Also in the 5 December sale is a twelve-bore, sidelock hammer ejector gun by Boss & Co., completed in 1893, which is one of only fourteen ever produced. The top-lever gun, featuring rebounding sidelocks, percussion fences, best foliate-scroll engraving, and the engraving ‘Boss & Co. 73 St James’s Street, London’ on the 30-inch damascus barrels, is estimated at £12,000 – 16,000.
As well as being extremely rare, the gun is distinguished in having belonged to Field Marshal Sir Francis Wogan Festing (1902 – 1976). Festing was educated at Winchester College before joining the army in 1921. He rose swiftly through the ranks, and, in 1942, was the Commander of the 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group, famous for being the landing force for Operation Ironclad, an operation which comprised a series of invasions of Vichy France territories during the Second World War.
In 2011, Bonhams sold a cased pair of very fine and rare French silver-mounted flintlock pistols, fashioned by Boutet in the period 1798 – 1809, for £162,000.
