doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Holts- not that I really needed them

One of the Holt's personnel explained that they set estimation of bid ranges low sometimes to encourage bidding, but also to give you some hope of finding a rare gem, at a good price. Sometimes a gun gets bid up multiples of the high estimation and sometimes not. When you win, with a bid in the estimate spread you feel you found your gem and when you watch one go for big money you think I recognized the gem, but would not meet the high price it realized. And sometimes the market just goes crazy. Like the gun I bid on that had a high estimation of 3,000 that went for 20,000+. One of the staff told me they were thunderstruck on that item. Both the seller and they thought it might go for 5-6,000. I dropped put at 14,000 which was really 5,000 above my pre-sale self imposed limit. In the four years since I have never seen another example of that gun and doubt there will be another as they claimed only three were ever made. Ah, the one who got away.

Quality always has a way of rising to the top and you can see that with boxlocks right now. Really good ones bring good money and decent ones can be bought for a good value price.

Stephen,

I too would love to identify the engraver. I have seen one other Green gun with almost identical engraving (but scalloped fences) that was sold at Bonhams many years ago. This one was built with 30 inch barrels and there are no makers initials on the Whitworth barrels.



They could very well have been sourced from Thomas Kilby whose name appears in Green’s records linked to other high quality guns.

The ejectors are Baker’s Patent.



Frustratingly the extraordinarily precise special order is silent as to the engraving.

Have considered putting In some bids on holts but have yet to do so. What happens with the unsold lots? Do they go into the next auction? Are they sold at a buy now price?

They are currently re-offered as Unsold Lots, that sale ending at the same time as the current sealed bids sale.

Parabola, that is a fine gun. I can see why it seems special to you. To have the paperwork makes it even more interesting. Fun to shoot, I am sure, but just fun to look at, too.

What did lot 1149 sell for?

Lot 1149 sold for £600.

The online catalogue with results is now showing under “previous sale results”.

I picked up lot #1106, a really interesting early Mauser sporter by Westley Richards, action dated 1898, the barrel has been lined and it appears to be a small ring intermediate length transitional action. This one will likely stay with me a while, I like it.

Thankyou!

Nice “get”, Steve. Thanks for posting the pics.
Caliber?