An interesting pair of guns

[Tanks]

Ran across this, a pair of H&H in 12 and 20 gauges, lefty cast to boot.
Westley Richards

Maybe @Red Leg or other shotgun gurus can tell me if it is good value.

 

[Red Leg]

The Northwood guns were intended to reach a larger market than a traditional bespoke H&H - think the Rigby Highland Stalker.

The consensus is that the barreled actions were built by Webley & Scott using a slightly modified W&S model 700 series action. W&S were marketing the 700 series in 12 and 20 at the same time. The H&H guns were finished and stocked by H&H craftsmen to a higher finish standard than the equivalent W&S.

They are good solid guns that typically run $8 - $12k depending on condition and location; 12 bore at the lower end of that range and 20 bore at the upper. H&H purists look down their long noses at them because they are not "real" H&H guns. However, they also don't cost $50K (used market) - $150K+ for a London made H&H.

Composed pairs like this are interesting, particularly if they both fit well. It means that the owner has two guns of identical dimensions for different quarry (12 for pheasants and Sharptail / 20 for doves and quail). However, such a pair is useless as a pair for driven hunts in the UK or Spain where you would have a loader; simply impossible to handle and load two gauges under such conditions.

All this is a long way around to saying yes that is a fair price for those two guns and probably a bit on the low end considering their unique pairing.

 

[Tanks]

Wow, thanks for all the info.

 

[Nevada Mike]

That's a lot of money for a pair of Webley and Scott guns. The motto in buying fine shotguns is... "Buy the gun, not the name." The market for high end shotguns has softened in the past couple of years and prices have been slipping downwards.

I recently bought a pristine, London made Henry Aktin, built in 1930 on the Beesley patent self opener design (the same as Purdy's standard best guns). It is a special lightwweight 12 that scales 6lbs., 3 ounces. A true London best SLE. Cost a bit under 12K. IMO a better buy than a pair of boxlocks, in terms of quality for money.