There are some interesting lots in this auction and I just emailed in a couple of bids. There is a really nice pair of A.A. Brown & Sons 12 bores and a really interesting Boss 16 bore built on a Purdey action. The headliner is a 20 bore Woodward O/U regrettably with replacement barrels by another, but still beautiful to behold. I bet there are no more than a handful of Woodwards existing in this configuration.
The Woodward didn't sell and looks a steal at the reserve price to me. If only these guns could change hands without 30% on top going in fees. Not that I begrudge Gavin a living - lovely chap. There are some nice collectable hammer/damascus guns coming into the UK auction houses just now and going for very reasonable prices in my view.
Problem we have in the US is that 30% gets another 25-30% added onto it just getting it exported and sent to us. The days of simple Royal Mail service, getting a gun to us are long gone. I had a hammer gun sent to me years ago for the total cost of $85.00. Today it would be near $550-600.00.
I am interested in this gun as it should be a good case study. It is BV1-OQ1. Current Condition as rated by the market is the question. If it were a SXS and in pristine condition (CC1), it would value at BV1-OQ1-CC1 = $40,000. Give it 2X for being a small bore O/U and we get $80,000. What say you all to that tidbit?
If the gun had its OE barrels, I'd expect it to rate about CC4 (Heavy use, but no abuse). 2X BV1-OQ1-CC4 = $36,000. What say you all about that?
According to my current charts, Shootable but needs some repairs and refinishing or refinished with barrels or stock replaced is CC6. So, 2X BV1-OQ1-CC6 = $17,700. Hmmmmm! And?
The Pound is at 1.4 to the dollar. The gun apparently failed to hammer at BPS 20,000 which would have been $28,000. 30% for buyer's premium and shipping would bump it up to $36,400. "Reverse engineering a value to a current condition would give us a CC of level three and a half (CC3.5). That means we would have to describe this gun as between "Significent use" and "Heavy use, but no abuse."
OK, is the auction low estimate off by a factor of double?
DDA
The London auctions are well attended by the "Trade." If a gun is/was all of that it would have been picked up. Irrespective of anyone's mathematics on gun values.
A bit of naivete in this thread.
Fair market value, determined by true auction, was $28,000.00. Seller thought otherwise. You can argue that those in the trade would only buy it, to make a later profit, after putting it into a better condition for selling so discounted their price accordingly. That auction is also attended, by well informed non dealers with money, who understood how rare that gun was. You will go a long time before you see another one come up for auction, so there had to be a reason the bidding stopped at $28K. Perhaps the gun was deemed to need a lot of work or the condition disappointed potential buyers. Sometimes reserves just keep guns from selling if set too high as they often are.
KY Jon, you are correct in what you say. However, the question for me is at what reserve would it have sold. Big money took a ding when the barrels were replace (without conserving the OE's).
Replaced barrels and/or stock and sleeved barrels raise the question as to whether the barrels/stock had an untimely accident or were shot out. Restoration after an accident is understandable whereas unexplained major repair is a red flag.
DDA
If you want to see some closeups of the Woodward, go to Joe Hall’s website as it was listed for sale there prior to the auction and the pictures remain available.