L.Brown notes: "it's probably not wise to assume that their military pay was their only source of income."
This seems to reinforce the point that the cost of a "best" in the heyday of english gunmaking was a small fraction of a buyer's annual income.
Considering the great numbers of mid level officers (captains, majors, naval commanders etc)in the ledgers it is unlikely that ALL of them were partly financed by discretionary income sources. Also there are plenty of plain "misters" in the ledger books and they could afford a "best".
Current pricing of "best is even more weird . Per kilogram of weight it is in multiples of a Rolls Royce. No way a 1880 design can rival the costs of development or the overheads etc of a hand built car. Arguably there is more skilled handwork in an exotic car than in a "best" shotgun and infinitely higher development costs.
Our passion often displaces objective thinking, but that is no reason for the makers to overdo it with pricing.
Last edited by Shotgunlover; 04/08/17 03:02 PM.
