Purdey’s first over-under – the real story

The development of British over-under shotguns started prior to World War One, with as many as 22 separate patents filed between 1909 and 1914. However, Purdey did not enter that market until 1923, a year after Athol Purdey’s first sales trip to New York. Upon his return he instructed the factory manager, Ernest Lawrence, to create a suitable design. According to Ernest’s son, Harry, “Mr. Athol Purdey wanted an over and under gun built on the same principle as the [Edwinson] Green gun, for he said that it was the strongest over and under gun he had ever seen.” 

Innovation in gunmaking

Edwinson C. Green was an innovative Cheltenham-based gunmaker, whose designs included an electro-magnetic safety mechanism, patented in 1913. The company were in production between 1868 and 1947 but the surviving records list just 25 over-under guns, with the last ordered in March 1915. Theirs was a back-action sidelock design, and incorporated two patents registered by Green in 1912. The first (No. 8225) related to both the ejectors and a cocking system, and the second (No. 14,951) covered a pair of angled extensions on the breech-face, secured by a cross-bolt. 

Athol Purdey – a decisive man

The drawing associated with the first patent depicts Purdey-style lumps, fitted to the bottom of the lower barrel, and it is unclear whether the design could be built with or without the breech extensions. Athol retained them and, at his insistence, the Purdey lumps were replaced with two bites fitted on each side of the barrels. This reduced the depth of the action and gave six bites in total, and it is for this reason that the first Purdey over-under guns are referred to as “Sextuple Bite” guns. 

_{Athol Purdey Pigeon Shooting in Monte Carlo}

Bulky and over-engineered

In contrast to the guns of companies such as James Woodward and Sons, the “Sextuple Bite” guns have a reputation for being bulky and over-engineered. Harry Lawrence was unhappy with the original design but, apart from altering the method of cocking after Athol Purdey’s retirement in 1928, he was not able to significantly modify the design until the 1930s. To do so, he removed the pair of bites nearest the hinge, reducing the total from six to four, which allowed the action width to be reduced slightly. In total, 27 Purdey over-unders were built between 1923 and 1939, when production ceased. The purchase of James Woodward & Sons in 1948 allowed Purdey to produce a much simpler and sleeker action, which they continue to produce today. 

First gun returns to Purdey HQ

The very first Purdey over-under has recently returned to Audley House, on loan from a private English Collector. No. 22,564 appears to be unique, and adds an intriguing dimension to the story told by Harry Lawrence, as it is mechanically a copy of the original Edwinson Green four-bite design. This produced an action which is both peculiarly slender but relatively long and deep. It also suggests that Athol commissioned the Lawrences to build a copy of the Edwinson Green action first, before modifying it to better suit the company’s requirements.  

A prototype with no papers

Sadly, the production process is only partially documented in the company’s records. The action was complete by mid-May, and the gun was test shot on November 6th 1923, but the relevant engraver book is lost and no completion date was noted against its entry in the Dimension Book. This is not out of keeping with guns built as prototypes, and it would appear the details that were recorded were added later. 

A globe-trotting gun

No. 22,564 remained with the company until March 1935, when it was sold to C.B. Vaughan, a gun dealer based on the Strand who unashamedly proclaimed their premises to be “The Gun Market of the World”. It was sold together with a pigeon gun for the total price of just £120. This seems cheap, perhaps reflective of their age as well as the gun’s history as a prototype. Vaughan suffered no difficulties in selling it, as at the beginning of July they were invoiced for adjusting the stock and fitting both Lyman sights and a Silver’s recoil-pad on behalf of F.J.T. Barnes. He did not keep the gun for long. 

In April 1937, Purdey were informed the gun was being offered second-hand by E.J. Churchill, and by the 1950s it was in the possession of S.A. Jenkins of Melbourne, Australia. It was sold at auction by Christie’s Melbourne in 1990, only resurfacing in 2007, when it was in Maine. It remained in the US until it was purchased by its current owner in early 2018.

True to the original Edwinson Green

Today it weighs in at a reasonable and relatively modern 7lb. 9oz. The action is an assisted-opener, powered by the ejector mechanism, with a manual safety. The forend is constructed in three pieces, with side fillets screwed to the barrels, and uses what appears to be a special forend-iron. These all appear to be features associated with the original Edwinson Green design. 

Over-under or under-over?

The 29in. Whitworth Steel barrels have a smooth solid top-rib, bearing the classic Purdey barrel legend. They were originally choked “Modified” in the top barrel and “Choke” in the bottom, although this now appears to have been altered to “5/8” in both. The original choke configuration is indicative of the order of firing, with the top barrel firing first. 

This was true of the first 18 over-unders, which appear with the appellation “O&U” in the records. When this was reversed in 1938, the records refer instead to the guns as “U&O”. Overall it appears the gun was built as a heavier game gun, and so sits somewhere between the trap and lightweight game guns that were produced in following years.

Is this the father?

Whilst writing this article a surprising discovery shed new light on the story. In May 1937, a second-hand Edwinson Green over-under, No. 6896, was sold to Vaughan’s by Purdey. Given that Vaughan’s was apparently only used to dispose of stock guns, the records of Purdey’s annual stock take were examined. These reveal that No. 6896 had been at Audley House since 1922, having been purchased second-hand from Vaughan’s. It was assigned the number A1456, indicating it was intended to be sold on, but the retail ledger notes it was sold to “Mr. Purdey”. This was apparently how Athol was referred to after his father’s death, but it does not appear in his invoices for the period. 

^{Harry Lawrence & Tom Purdey with the over & under in the Long Room at Purdey, Audley House}

A mysterious weight difference

From the records, No. 6896 was completed in October 1913, as the No. 2 of a pair. And we now know the gun was sold at auction in America in 2016. Overall, both guns are very similar, as might be expected. They both appear to use the same ejector, forend and lock arrangements, and they both have 29in. barrels. However, despite the relatively close dimensions, No. 6896 apparently weighs just 6lb. 12oz., nearly a full pound lighter than No. 22,564. Sadly, without reuniting the two it will remain impossible to say where the 13oz. difference comes from. 

Hidden treasure?

But it is certainly intriguing that this gun should have been in Purdey hands at exactly the same time they were looking to copy the Edwinson Green design. Perhaps No. 6986 is in some way the father to No. 22,564, providing the mechanical references required to build Purdey’s first over-under. 

Unprovable as that may be, it could well mean that the collector who purchased No. 6896 for a little under $5,500 may have unexpectedly purchased an important piece in one of the more peculiar stories in Purdey’s history.