doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rigby "The Chatsworth"

hello steve,
thanks for info.how do you determine d grade and which model?i see the horseshoe lever and reasonable engraving plus panel and points.
as an aside webley made a chatsworth(also kinmount and bowood,country houses) under their own name in early 80s appx. i think they were nicely finished 700 models.
thanks again,cheers

mrwmartin

This looks like a book well worth reading!! I'm surprised I don't have it already.


http://www.amazon.com/Rigby-Grand-Tradit...eywords=helsley

"I'm the Rigby historian".

You can't argue with that!!!

The original owner, according to my vendor, was the late Mr Haywood of New Zealand.

By the way, weight is 6 pounds, 5, 1/2 oz making it one nicely balanced game gun. Thanks guys for calling up the pics.

Mr W martin,
The 1940 edition of Stoeger's The Shooter's Bible contains a helpful ad. The top Rigby grade was the "Regal." The second was the Sandringham" - both of which were sidelocks. Next came the the "Sackville" and then the "Chatsworth" - both of which were boxlocks. The Chatsworth was priced at 35 Guineas ($285.00). Think of it as A,B,C & D.

Kiwi - He (the vendor) was misinformed. It was a Col. E.J. O'Meara.

hello steve,
thank you for the clarification ie rigby "d grade".
I misinterpreted your original post to mean the gun was supplied by webley as a "d grade".
For my own interest i shall try to find which webley boxlocks were available immediately prior to 2nd war(when sporting gun production ceased for the duration)and try to decipher which model provided the rigby.
cheers
mr w martin

Yes, that helped explain the D-grade to me too.

Regarding the buyer, I wonder if it's the name of the new father-in-law? I'll see what I can find out. Thanks very much for the ledger advice.

The book, Rigby Grand Tradtion and also The British Boxlock are both, I have since discovered, for sale quite close by and I'll put an order in for them.

I need to get that book just to find out to what extent John Rigby had in building his guns. The British gun industry is fascinating, in that you always have something new to learn.
I always knew that W & C Scott & Son and later Webley & Scott had a big hand in the British gun industry but some of these other wholesale builders like AA Brown are new to me. I mean roughing out a forging is not building but some of these lesser known firms had a bigger part to play in building the entire gun for the bigger firms then initially thought.

An observation that I think is interesting. My first thought after seeing the pictures but before reading any of this was "Well this double certainly looks to be about the equivalent to a nice DHE Parker".
None too flashy but just gussied up enough to fit in with the teas and crumpets crowd.
This gun speaks to me as well and I would be pleased to own it.
Congratulations on a very nice find.
Jim

Kiwi, I believe your wonderful Rigby was built from Webley & Scott's Proprietary Model 400, which is recorded to have been made from 1900 to 1946. Great guns that morphed into the Model 700 after the war.

Did Webley make the Sandringham? I will post a picture of mine tomorrow.