LONDON.- Two Purdey sporting guns with intriguing histories are to be sold at the next Bonhams Modern Sporting Gun Sale in London on Thursday 30 April.

The first, a .450 sidelock non-ejector rifle made by Purdey– completed in 1883 for Walter Shoolbred who owned a successful department store on Tottenham Court Road in London making bespoke furniture including to Queen Victoria. He was a keen shot and spent much of his time stalking in the Scottish Highlands. At first, Shoolbred rented land at Carriehall Forest where he built a shooting lodge and became renowned for buying a steam launch which he used on Loch Glass to give himself advantageous positions to aim at deer on shore. He later owned the Kildermorie and Ben Wyvis Estates in Ross-shire. Ben Wyvis was rented by one of the finest shots in Britain, Captain Horatio Ross – Nelson’s godson – who was famous for shooting 82 grouse with 82 shots on his eighty second birthday. The rifle, which was part of in the W. Keith Neal collection, is estimated at £10,000-15,000.

The second, a 12-bore self-opening sidelock ejector gun made by Purdey and completed in 1895 for Prince Frederick Duleep Singh. Prince Freddy, as he was known, was the second son of Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire although he never ruled. The prince was born in London and enjoyed a traditional British upbringing. His father owned some of the finest shooting estates in the country and Prince Freddy together with his brother Victor were among the great shots of their age. They once shot a staggering 846 partridges before lunch at the family estate Elveden in Suffolk. This gun is estimated at £8,000-10,000.

Patrick Hawes, said, “One of the pleasures of my job is researching provenance and these important guns belonged to two great shots of the late Victorian era, such guns have become very collectable in recent years”.