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LOT 491
Factory Creative Art and Cortini Signed and Game Scene Engraved Holloway & Naughton 20 Gauge Sidelock Over/Under Shotgun with Case -
Serial no. 20-024, 20 gauge, 28 inch solid rib bbl., blue/coin finish, walnut stock. Holloway & Naughton guns are among the finest bespoke guns England has
to offer building on a custom order basis in small volume. This gun was built with blued steel barrels featuring a single brass bead sight on the smooth flat solid rib which is marked “HOLLOWAY & NAUGHTON MADE IN ENGLAND” along with flourishes of floral scroll, import mark on the flats, and 2001 dated London proofs showing 2 3/4 inch chambers with automatic ejectors of the 1909 Boss & Co. pattern. The barrels are fitted to a Boss & Co. patent type sidelock action which displays exceptionally well cut deep floral scroll over a darkened background encompassing a pair of high detailed game scenes before extending to the triggerguard, toplever, and both tangs. Both lockplates depict action scenes with the left featuring a diving raptor descending on a stoat who is in turn fleeing for its life across a field and on the right a great horned owl is shown descending on a hare, who, like the stoat is in a great hurry to find cover, though both will likely fall prey to their physically superior foes. The gun is signed twice, the triggerplate is signed “Creative Art” for the famous Italian engraving firm and again signed on the right sideplate “Dar. Cortini” for Italian Master Engraver Dario Cortini. This gun is displayed on Holloway & Naughton’s website as an example of the works they create, quite high praise to be the example others are measured by. The gun features gold centerline cocking indicators on either lockplate,
a single trigger, right hand rolled triggerguard, and tang mounted manual safety with gold inlaid “SAFE”. The wood is exceptionally well-figured and multi- point checkered on the forend which features engraved and coin finished fittings including the Anson button release and the Boss & Co. type extended shoe containing the ejector components.