A question for British members

gcbailey · Jul 15, 2026

As your distant rebellious cousin, I don't care about the monarchy (because 1776) but I do love high quality products from England; Cumbria Crystal, Taylor's of Old Bond Street, Geo F. Trumpers, and of course the fine firearm makers. My question is, do companies who hold Royal Warrants mean anything? If you are shopping, do you think "oh! They have royal warrants!" Is a royal warrant synonymous with quality or is it just a sales pitch?

wesheltonj · Jul 15, 2026

Not a Brit, but from what I’ve seen it’s both marketing and quality. For example, Turnbull and Asser shirts.

idiot101 · Jul 15, 2026

It does for me, the warrent requires the product to have been bought by the royal household for 5 of the last 7 years, there is no profit incentive, and the royal family can afford the best.

When considering a product and i see it has a royal warrent I think to myself "here is a brand/product of known quality and consistency which has been vetted on ethics by an institution I trust to care about these things"

Muntjacer23 · Jul 15, 2026

As a Brit I give it no consideration whatsoever. However it is a nice mark of a good quality product.

gcbailey · Jul 16, 2026

Thank you! I'm glad that it does hold more weight than just the title factor.

Major Bonkers · Jul 16, 2026

When I was a boy, I remember that Harrods (a department store) had a full sweep of 4 Royal warrants: the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Mother, and Prince of Wales. That was in the days when it was still British store, before the ghastly Mohammed Fayed got his mitts on it and comprehensively vulgarised it. For some strange reason, it does not hold any Royal warrants today!

Turnbull and Asser is owned by Mohammed's brother, Ali. I went in there 18 months ago, and the place was empty except for a whole load of listless and bored shop assistants: it's one of those shops. The prices were 'reassuringly expensive', as the saying goes: so expensive that it might well be the same price to have your shirts made up by a tailor rather than buying them off the peg. In any case, I think that there are better options available: I used to buy my shirts at Pinks, who have come back after going bust during Covid.

PCC600 · Jul 16, 2026

I used to live in the UK some years back . On the firearms side of things Purdey held the Queen’s Warrant for guns , H&H were for rifles . Westleys and Rigby held no warrant although they certainly did in the reigns of King George v and vi . I don’t put much stock in it .

Tintin · Jul 16, 2026

Here's a interesting piece on Royal Warrants that Westley Richards have held.

Coronation Connection

While we cannot claim to have made guns for all these monarchs, it is likely that we have made them for, or sold them to, members of most of the royal households during the reign of every one. It helped that Westley Richards had a shop in London’s New Bond Street and that the fashionable young...

www.westleyrichards.com

WAB · Jul 16, 2026

Tintin said:
Here's a interesting piece on Royal Warrants that Westley Richards have held.

Coronation Connection

While we cannot claim to have made guns for all these monarchs, it is likely that we have made them for, or sold them to, members of most of the royal households during the reign of every one. It helped that Westley Richards had a shop in London’s New Bond Street and that the fashionable young...

www.westleyrichards.com

Westley Richards does an excellent job of preserving and sharing their history. Their shop is a fascinating blend of museum and commercial space. If you have an interest in the firm, their book is worth picking up.

8 x 60 · Jul 16, 2026

Englishman here. Royal Warrants are of no interest to me and of zero influence.
I can honestly say I have never heard a Countryman of mine make reference to them .

UpNorthMI · Jul 16, 2026

As an Englishman, a business with a Royal Warrant is an endorsement / confirmation that their products were both purchased and given good feedback by Royalty. In my books, that Royal Warrant has a positive meaning about goods or services supplied. It may be one of many factors when assessing a company and its products. It is certainly not meaningless for me.

Interesting information:

https://www.royalwarrant.org/how-apply

gcbailey · Jul 16, 2026

UpNorthMI said:
As an Englishman, a business with a Royal Warrant is an endorsement / confirmation that their products were both purchased and given good feedback by Royalty. In my books, that Royal Warrant has a positive meaning about goods or services supplied. It may be one of many factors when assessing a company and its products. It is certainly not meaningless for me.

Interesting information:

https://www.royalwarrant.org/how-apply

That's very interesting! I didn't realize it was an application process. I thought that perhaps royalty purchased a product, liked it, and if they became repeat customers and established a relationship, they would decide to grant the company a warrant. Thank you for the information!

Tanks · Jul 16, 2026

Not British, but when I was in boarding school in England and needed riding boots I was referred to Schnieder boots for hand-made, made-to-measure boots, and it was interesting to note that they held a Royal Warrant from QEII. Had to travel to their shop in London to get measured, decades later I got boots made there for my last wife as well.

https://www.schniederboots.com/about

spike.t · Jul 16, 2026

PCC600 said:
I used to live in the UK some years back . On the firearms side of things Purdey held the Queen’s Warrant for guns , H&H were for rifles . Westleys and Rigby held no warrant although they certainly did in the reigns of King George v and vi . I don’t put much stock in it .

Rigbys did hold Royal Warrants....last was from Queen Elizabeth 2nd....revoked when they were sold to the usa in 90s...remember Paul taking about her .275 stalking rifles...

Tintin · Jul 16, 2026

WAB said:
Westley Richards does an excellent job of preserving and sharing their history. Their shop is a fascinating blend of museum and commercial space. If you have an interest in the firm, their book is worth picking up.

View attachment 777284

A most enjoyable book.

I also have

Westley Richards: The Firm 1812-1913

and

Westley Richards: A Century of Gun & Rifle Manufacture 1812-1912

Yes, a visit to Westley Richards is well worth the travel to Birmingham if one is in England.

The new Rigby premises are shaping up to be very special as well. They expect to be in next month.

Apologies for the thread drift.

PCC600 · Jul 16, 2026

spike.t said:
Rigbys did hold Royal Warrants....last was from Queen Elizabeth 2nd....revoked when they were sold to the usa in 90s...remember Paul taking about her .275 stalking rifles...

View attachment 777382

Apologies I meant Rigby “hold” no warrant currently . I have their old catalogues from 1960s when they had a warrant . But they lost it a long time ago.

spike.t · Jul 17, 2026

PCC600 said:
Apologies I meant Rigby “hold” no warrant currently . I have their old catalogues from 1960s when they had a warrant . But they lost it a long time ago.

Have to blame the yanks for that....as said got revoked when sold to the california lot... :E Big Grin:

gcbailey · Jul 17, 2026

spike.t said:
Have to blame the yanks for that....as said got revoked when sold to the california lot...

I don't recall many "Yanks" being too happy about the move either.

Muskox · Jul 17, 2026

8 x 60 said:
Englishman here. Royal Warrants are of no interest to me and of zero influence. I can honestly say I have never heard a Countryman of mine make reference to them .

Muskox · Jul 17, 2026

8 x 60 said:
Englishman here. Royal Warrants are of no interest to me and of zero influence. I can honestly say I have never heard a Countryman of mine make reference to them .

Are you familiar with Craig Boddington approved Outfitters?

It is that, but at a bigger scale.

Spent almost 20 years outside of the United States now in my mid 50's and I have spent a lot of time in the UK. There was a former British gal, that almost became Mrs. Muskox about 20 years ago and I visited often. Never heard a word about Royal Warrants.

Also, I subscribe to most of the UK Oriented shooting, hunting and air gun magazines. As EU shipping is pretty cheap. I have never seen anyone speak about a royal warrant in a magazine article.

The advertisers might have a little image of the royal warrant in their ad, but that would be it.

The only people that seem to care about things like this in my circles are diplomatic weirdos who have 800 British Pound tea sets.

When I lived in Kentucky (the epicenter of fake British as far as I know) everyone was wearing Hunter Wellies and had plaid wall paper. Wearing

Seems like the kinds of people that would care about royal warrants fit into those two groups.
1. Fake British Cosplay Southerners
2. Diplomatic Foreign Service people who are HRH worshippers.
3. People selling things who pay the piper for the advertising rights. To infer a level of exclusivity.

A question for British members

gcbailey

wesheltonj

idiot101

Muntjacer23

gcbailey

Major Bonkers

PCC600

Tintin

Coronation Connection

WAB

Coronation Connection

8 x 60

UpNorthMI

gcbailey

Tanks

spike.t

Tintin

PCC600

spike.t

gcbailey

Muskox

Muskox

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