I found my copy of Gene Hill's 1989 book "Shotgunner's Notebook. Page 56- "Guns as Investments" Gene opens with a quote from a 1927 article by my favorite vintage gunwriter and gentleman gunner (not Nash B.- by Capt. Curtis was a close friend of Nash's)-skip to where Gene writes: "But as Capt. Curtis pointed out 30 years ago" and perhaps, like me, you will interpolate this article as being written in 1957-No matter- Gene's words of wisdom make sense to me-Quote: "In the British makers the used gun bargains are just as rare. The famous names are in the $10,000 class and only those who look hard will find one of the many fine but lesser-known makers like Lang, Hussey, Grant or Horsley, to name but a few that are about half the cost of the Purdeys and Bosses but in general their equal in quality and function- The point is that the time for buying investment guns is probably past. But as Captain Curtis pointed out 30 years ago, 'The sportsman should not consider his arms from a cold and mercenary point of view. He does not buy them for profit, but for service, and he should therefore write off a certain amount for service rendered. Nevertheless, a fine weapon will, if wisely disposed of, fetch closer to its purchase price than a cheap gun would, and a really fine one will, if held long enough, frequently bring more"..

I would not be so crass as to tell another man, even one I might know well, how to spend his money, especially on things as important as good side-by-side shotguns, as much as I would not welcome him telling me how to spend my gunning $- BUT, unless you will not live a complete life without a Purdey shotgun, and feel you are getting a fair value in trade for your fine Hussey shotgun- well, you can do the math. I would pay the money to have Jack Rowe examine this Purdey from "stem to stern"- as I too, being of a suspicious nature, as are most surviving Foxes, would question the possible motive of the seller of the Purdey in consideration. For what it is worth, I had Bill Jaqua sell a 12 bore Hammer Purdey that was in the family and came to me-it had Damascus barrels and back then we didn't have the interest and possible expertise in that technology of another era to realize they are shootable, with the right loads and conditions. I wish now that I had kept it, like several Harleys and a few cars I owned in past times, but life is fluid, like a river, and ever changing, and what pulls our heart and purse strings today may not even arouse a blink of an eye tomorrow!!

"The field is the touchstone of the man"..