doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com funeral model pictures

That is the explanation my friend received from Purdey's when he inquired about his "funeral" 28 gauge. They suggested also that customer might have wanted a gun "rushed" so he could use it during the current upcoming season and, for whatever reason, it was never returned for finishing.

sv

Didn't Dear old Bill Wise have a high end Gun..a Greener (I think, but could be wrong there)SL that was unengraved & Blacked??..I believe his son Ben won some Silver at the Vintagers with it.
I think I remember seeing it in the Greener book.
I miss old Bill:(
franc O

So says Ron Forsyth, engraving the gun was only measured in days.
Woodwork, action and barrels taking the most time.

The "never sent back" theory makes no sense.

Ben Wise's Greener Royal is of the "funeral" type, a high grade gun in unengraved black finish. When I asked Graham Greener about my eight gauge unengraved Royal, he mentioned Ben's gun and explained that these high grade unengraved guns of his make were ordered that way by discriminating customers and were quite scarce, which we know. My particular gun has no gold embellishment where Ben's 12 gauge, as I recall, has gold letters. I doubt that Ben Wise, as host to this week's Vintagers, will have the opportunity to compete this year. Yup, Frank, I miss Owleye a lot myself. Murphy

DF: I'll try to answer your question.
I don't know of any official definition of "funeral gun", but here is my take on it FWIW.
When I hear/see reference to a funeral gun I expect to see: a Brit SxS, sidelock, "name' maker, higher grade gun but with no/very little engraving.
As better quality Brit sidelocks traditionally had goodly amounts of engraving, the lack of engraving on these guns was UNUSUAL and left a relatively large expanse of vacant, blue emptiness on the sidelocks. This "untoward" unadorned expanse of blue/black finish brought to mind the standard "funeral' colour - hence "funeral gun".
I would not argue with anyone who wanted to include in my definition, a HIGH grade American gun lacking the expected/grade standard engraving that "lettered" as being ordered "funeral".
A standard factory production unengraved gun would not be considered a funeral gun, IMHO.
As this is a somewhat nebulous term, I expect others have their versions of truth also - but this is MY version.

See article in "Shooting Sportsman" May/June 2006 "Kiss of the Black Widow" by Douglas Tate

Two weeks ago I had a Purdey 12bore 2 barrel set Funeral grade in my hands. Made in the 30's that was flawless. It was explained to me that these funeral grades took longer to make since they had to be perfect. A border of gold and the Purdey named in gold graced the action.
While driving home I called to see if they would accept an offer on this piece. Time will tell of I own this casket.

All dressed up in black as if for a funeral.

I doubt an unembellished gun would take more care than a fully engraved gun. Yes, it's a little tougher to prep the pieces so they look 'perfect' but the time it takes to do that can't equal the time it takes to engrave it.