James Purdey & Sons, or simply Purdey, is a
British gunmaker based in London, England specialising in high-end bespoke
sporting shotguns and rifles.[1][2] Purdey holds Royal Warrants of appointment
as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families.
History
James Purdey & Sons Ltd. in Audley House on South
Audley Street, in London's Mayfair
Four-barreled pistol of Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke
of Newcastle made by James Purdey
James Purdey was born in Whitechapel in 1784, and
apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Thomas Keck Hutchinson. After completing his
training, he worked for both Joseph Manton and Rev. Alexander Forsyth, before
establishing his own company in London, England, in 1814, locating his business
on Princes Street, now Wardour Street, near Leicester Square.
In 1826, the company moved from Princes Street to
Manton's former premises at 314-315 Oxford
Street. Due to a conflict of numbering, the business used the address ‘314½
Oxford Street’ from 1827. Due to a conflict of numbering, the business
used the address ‘314½
Oxford Street’ from 1827.
The founder's son, James Purdey the Younger, took over
the company's running from his father in 1858. James the Younger saw rapid
change in the development and design of guns and rifles during his lifetime,
essentially moving from muzzle
loading flintlocks in the 1820s to breech loading hammerless ejectors by the 1890s.
James the Younger was always at the forefront of advances in designing and
building his guns and rifles and took out several patents for technical
innovations over the years. These included the famous ‘Purdey Bolts’ locking
system, and his concealed third bite. Both remain in production today, and may
other gunmakers also adopted these designs as well.
In 1878 James the Younger took two of his sons into
the business, renaming it James Purdey & Sons. In 1882, the company moved
from Oxford Street to new premises at 57-58 South Audley Street, on the corner
with Mount Street, where the company remains today. James the Younger designed
this building to accommodate his showroom and the factory, and later, the
building provided living quarters for James' family. The City of Westminster
unveiled a memorial
plaque on
the shop at 57-60 South Audley Street on 30 April 1992.
Purdey introduced their self-opening hammerless gun in
1880. Designed by Frederick Beesley, a former Purdey craftsman, his hammerless
self-opening mechanism uses one limb of a V-spring to operate the internal
hammers and the other to operate the self-opening feature. This action was
modified in 1888 through the incorporation of William Wem’s ejector design.
Apart from occasional refinement and the optional single trigger mechanism,
very little change has subsequently been made to the design of the side-by-side
gun.
In 1900, Athol Purdey took over from his father and
ran the business through the prosperous Edwardian years, as well as supervising
Purdey's manufacturing of sniper rifles and aerial gunnery sights for the War Office during World War I. Athol's sons, James and
Tom, both of whom had served in France, joined the firm in the 1920s.
No comments:
Post a Comment