Thus, the debate has turned mainly amongst people from the Western Hemisphere, that mostly have not inside knowledge; meanwhile Britons had remained conspicuosly silent. Sometimes silence speaks a lot.
Let me insist that my original question IS RELEVANT, at least for many potential buyers that have the money but not the time to find out when they go "into a sea, of great guns and fine people, that is occasionally punctuated by sharks, charlatans and exorbitant prices" in the words of Ross Seyfried.
It is an established fact that outsoursing amongst the London gun makers is kept as secret as possible. Its is also a fact that they have no trouble mentioning that stocks are obtained from Turkey, but some are not so willing to say from where they obtain their barrels, frames and locks.
Lets asume for the sake of argument that a London gun maker gets their guns in the white from Spain. Once they are finished he charges €53.000 + VAT for a best side by side. Then lets have a look what the Basques have to offer in their top of the line side by sides. What we found is that we can buy three or four guns from Arrizabalaga, Arrieta, AYA, Garbi or Grulla, that will be in the same category, the only difference being barrel and wood finish and engraving. My bet would be that a good number of discerning buyers, having the money and being in the know, will go for a pair of Spanish best guns, spending the balance in a series of driven shooting parties, probably in Britain.
If this is the case --and I suspect it is-- it is not surprising that silence is the answer we are getting from Albion.
