doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Francotte engraving- "CONDE"

Hello,
I recently handled a matched pair of .410 A. Francottes with "CONDE" engraved in gold on the bottom of the left side plate.
Wondering if this refers to original owner or some other distinction.

I believe engraver was Smeetz?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you

The gentleman pictured above is indeed Count Teba, Bunting, his nickname among friends and family, ( it was pronounced by the Spanish without the sound of the "g" comes out sort of sounding like BUNNY when they pronounce it) was a most interesting sportsman of the old Royal school.
He was born to the manor, His father, The Duke of Alba, had extensive Spanish holdings.

The gun he is pictured holding is his 30' F&F choked Purdey Pigeon gun. DT, Ejector straight grip with a very hard Silvers pad. The gun is now cared for by his grandson and remains at the family estate.
Bunting was widely considered the greatest Spanish Pigeon shot for over 3 decades. He shot only the one gun pictured above for his entire Competitive career. He was ranked among Europe's greatest when the game was at its largest and most competitive period for the two decades following the resumption of shooting post WWII.

Much to the consternation of the English of the period, he was universally recognized as the Greatest Driven Bird shot on the Continent. Lightening fast and blessed with some of ( if not) the Best partridge grounds in Spain, he shot actively the length of every Spanish season, returning to the Ring and competition at the close of the gunning season. He shot his game with a matched TRIO of 12 bore Purdey Best . He shot with such speed that he had his personal secretario (loader) who traveled with him whenever shot as a guest away from his own holdings. I had the privilege of shooting as his guest on his grounds, and he provided me two of the trio to use as my guns for the shooting days. Heady stuff for a Texas brush jumper indeed.

Unfortunately, in the 70's if I recall, Teba lost his shooting eye in a gunning accident. An errant shot from a shooter in an adjacent Butt ended one of the most illustrious shooting careers of the 20th century. Teba was a close friend of my shooting mentor of many years, a fellow Pigeon Champion in his own right. The shooting scene was more relaxed in the 80's and dinner invitations and the social scene was very much a part of the experience of competing abroad then. We ( my friend and I) always made arrangements to invite Bunni and his lovely wife to dinner at a top tier restaurant in downtown Madrid , whenever the shooting schedule had us in Madrid. In later years when he was reluctant to venture out as much in the evening, we would be invited to have dinner with them in the lovely mid city flat they owned. I last saw him in 1990 when he had lunch with us at the Somontes club in Madrid. Later in that week he returned to see the final shootoff as his nephew ,Count Manuel Corcuera , won the 1990 Championship of Europe.

His game guns remain at the shooting estate with his grandson as well. The grounds are operated as a commercial driven shoot these days. Rooms in the lodge, covering hundreds of sq ft, house his vast Collection of Pigeon Shooting trophies , truly impressive.

Not exactly. "Condé" comes from the small city of Condé en Brie.

"Condé" refers to the Prince of Condé, Duke of Enghien. The Condé were a junior branch of the Bourbon, the French royal family.

The Condé were one of the most powerful families in the French nobility before 1789 and their name is often associated with wealth, military prestige and power.

Possibly a reference to this gentleman



Vichy (Francia), 1953. Carlos Alfonso Mitjans Fitz James Stuart, XXII Conde de Teba, tras proclamarse campeón del mundo de tiro de pichón, con treinta y cuatro pájaros abatidos de treinta y cinco. Viste la chaqueta a la que dió nombre, la prenda española más internacional.

Vichy (France), 1953. Carlos Alfonso Mitjans Fitz James Stuart, XXII Count of Teba, after proclaiming himself pigeon shooting world champion, with thirty-four birds out of thirty-five shot down. He wears the jacket to which he gave his name, the most international Spanish garment.

The Teba jacket
https://thechap.co.uk/2019/12/03/the-teba-jacket/
https://lastofengland.co.uk/the-story-of-the-teba/
http://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2014/05/teba-jacket-legendary-sporthunting.html



Should be interesting reading. Born 1907 in Toledo and died 1997 in Madrid - quite a life!
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13520368M/Bunting_El_Conde_de_Teba_Memorias_de_una_Leyenda.

No, it was not Cyril..... I started shooting Pigeons abroad several years before Cyril ventured over the water for a go at it.

Interestingly, when Cyril was writing his great history of the sport, he asked me about several of the older shooters I knew, among them Count Teba.
Impossible to find a detractor when asking about Teba, universally regarded by Spaniards and foreign nationals alike, as the consummate GENTLEMAN, in the Ring and the Field.