Adventure Club member Jon Ratty has dug up yet more interesting information about the Lancaster guns that Carruther favours for his supposed duck-shooting holiday:
Ahoy!
I turned up another few items about Lancaster guns in the last day or so, which may add some interest.
People collect old shotgun cartridges like other people collect stamps, so it’s possible to find all sorts of brands online. Sure enough, I found some Lancaster shells here:
And what’s lovely about this piece? Lancaster’s shells are not only supplied to the king, but to ‘His Imperial Majesty, the German Emperor’. There’s an irony.
“Lancaster’s loading facility was a 2, Bruton Street where he began specializing in shot-sizes which he advertised as “Medium Game”. It was claimed that they had greater penetration than No. 6 and a tighter pattern than No. 5.” – image via http://www.midlandcartridge.com/
The next item is that there is a sale of historic guns coming up on April 15th at Sotheby’s, and it will include a number of Lancasters. The auction catalogue is here:
The exciting lot will be number 272: A pair of Lancaster 14-bore percussion guns, given to Prince Albert as a gift by Queen Victoria in 1850. A snip at the estimated price of £35-40,0000.
Looking forward to the next podcast.
This is exactly the kind of extra information we’re hoping to get from Club members to build up the material that could go into our Handbook. Thanks Jon! You’ve earned an Adventure Club badge (when we get round to making them).
The Curiously Specific Book Club 