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The history of Purdey’s exhibition guns displayed in Paris in 1878, including this double rifle, is discussed in detail in “The Paris Exhibition of 1878” by Harlow in a series of three articles published
in “The Vintage Gun Journal” in January-March of 2022. He notes that the list of the exhibits for the Parisian Exposition Universelle held between May 1 and November 10, 1878, and indicates that the exhibition “was a landmark event for the company.” Some of the guns from the list had been completed as early as 1872, and thus the earlier guns may have also been displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. He writes, “From surviving records, the Purdey display in Paris appears to have been the largest of any exhibition by the firm in the Victorian period. The majority of the display items were sent over on 18 April, about two weeks before the exhibition opened. This included twenty-nine guns, framed pictures, warrants, and all of the cleaning and maintenance accessories needed for the show.” Three additional guns were shipped on April 26th, and another nine where sent out
during the exhibition.
19th century journalist George Augustus Sala writing in “Paris Herself Again in 1878-9” went into detail about the 1878 exhibition, including: “There is a glass case belonging to a Gold Medalist which it would be decidedly unjust to pass without mention ere the Exposition Universelle comes to the end
of its wondrous career. I allude to one containing the sporting guns and rifles manufactured by Messrs. James Purdey & Sons of Oxford Street, London. Most of the fowling-pieces and rifles, complete in workmanship and exquisite in finish, exhibited by Messrs. Purdey, who are gun-makers to the Queen and the Prince of Wales, have been purchased by Royal and noble personages...” Harlow indicates most of the remaining firearms were sold within two years of the exhibition. Sala continues later stating, “The extra Purdey exhibit consists of four guns, elaborately chased in the champ-leve style, two of which have been embellished by the talented artist Aristido Barri [sic], who was arrested at Vienna as
a Communist, but was subsequently released, and is now occupied in executing a champ-leve for the Emperor of Austria.”
In his second article, Harlow notes that the exhibition guns discussed by Sala from 1878 exhibition are recorded as: “No. 9563 – 12-bore bar-in-wood sidelock hammer gun (£94 10s); No. 9568 - .450 (BPE) hammer double rifle (£120); Nos. 10,140/1 –20-bore island backlock hammer guns (£210). The gold- inlaid pair with maple stocks: Nos. 10,110/1 –16-bore bar-in-wood sidelock hammer guns (£200). The pair of Ladies’ guns with ebonised stocks: Nos. 10,103/4 –28-bore bar-in-wood sidelock hammer guns (£140).” This rifle is the second on the list, and he notes that it and 9563 “were the only two guns known to be exhibited twice, traveling to Sydney for a trade exhibition in 1879, priced at £100 (net £90) and £125 (net £112 10s) respectively. They may also have gone onto Melbourne in 1880, but no list for that exhibition survives. Both were eventually sold to Keane, but at different times and possibly without his knowing they had been prize-winning guns.
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