doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why are Dickson's?

Commission purchasing in 1930 is a total disconnect with actual history. You need real skills to command and "drive" a dreadnought! At least no one has so far come forth with the notion that RAF pilots could buy their way into a Spitfire cockpit.

Gough Thomas was not wealthy nor titled, he was a an engineer in charge of rural electrification. I am certain he did not "buy" his position with the electricity authority! In the 1950s he ordered a Henry Atkin best sidelock.

Closer to home, our local butcher in London, in the 1960s bought a Holland and Holland Royal for a couple of thousand pounds. Less than he paid for his car back then.

No matter what some want to believe about the hallowed names, there were times when they were affordable, new as well as used.

You know the "Great War" Mike Rowe referred to is WW1, done and gone by the end of 1918. And it's already been established that the Royal Navy was significantly ahead of the rest of the British (and world) military in the creation of a "professional" officer class.

So what he bought his commission? He could use a sword better, shoot better and could beat the hell out of anyone in his regiment.

You guys watch way too many Hollywood movies.

Read something about this guy, Robert Ross (British Army officer)

This doesn't seem like a lot of money in today's terms. But in the 1930s 120 bps was a sizable chunk of change. In 1930 the US dollar was worth just over 4 schillings - and the pound sterling was 20 schillings. The USD equivalent to 120 bps was nearly $600 USD. There were a LOT of families in the USA that would have been very happy to earn $600 a month in 1930.

I recall reading the Shooter's Bible gun descriptions/prices and seeing a new Purdey listed at $1200 - this was in the late 50s! Things change, and the Brand Value of names like Purdey, Boss, and Holland and Holland has increased prices to provide high returns for the companies that now own these 'luxury brands'. In other words, you're paying extra for the name.

Luxury branding has turned many previsouly useful and affordable items into fetishes.

Gough Thomas called the so called "investors" who have turned best guns into fetishes "inflation hedging barbarians".

Most of us have met the type, people who own a droplock but never knew the locks detach, people who outright reject a Dickson because it has no sidelocks for more engraving surface.

High tech will soon reach the point where anything will be precision copiable at a reasonable cost and hopefully that will dissolve this fetish thing.