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Product Details
B.S.A CO. FOR JOHN RIGBY & CO.
A .303 (BRIT.) 'LEE-SPEED' BOLT-MAGAZINE SPORTING RIFLE, serial no. 1121,
for 1898, 24 1/2in. unsigned nitro reproved barrel (in 2024, barrel likely historic replacement), open rear sight with two folding leaf sights with white metal inlaid sight-lines, ramped bead fore-sight, the breech end numbered '5537', nocksform with stippled sighting flat, bolt dust cover with light border engraving and marked 'JOHN RIGBY & CO. 72 ST. JAMES'S ST. LONDON.', turned-down low-profile bolt handle, manual bolt-mounted safety, detachable magazine with border engraving, triggerguard numbered '1121', butt-stock collar marked 'LEE SPEED. PATENTS. B.S.A. CO. B1879.' and with border engraving, blued finish overall, figured pistolgrip stock (poor insert repair to toe) with horn pistolgrip-cap, 14in. pull including steel buttplate, fore-end with horn finial, sling eyes, weight 7lb. 7oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly confirmed that the records list the rifle as 'Lee Rigby Sporting Best', Sept. 27th 1898, .303, 26" barrel for H. Weld Blundell
'H. Weld Blundell' is likely to refer to Herbert Joseph Weld Blundell (1852-1935) a traveller, archaeologist, philanthropist and author.
His travels took him to initially to Persia in 1891 and he then spent ten years travelling and chronicling various expeditions in North Africa and East Africa, between 1894 and 1905. The purchase of the Rigby rifle corresponds with an expedition to Abyssinia he undertook in December 1898 with Lord Lovat, Reginald Koettlitz (late of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition) and Mr Harwood (naturalist). His subsequent chronicle 'A Journey Through Abyssinia to the Nile' was published in the Geographical Journal in February 1900.
During the Second Boer War, he acted briefly as correspondent for the Morning Post before continuing on his expeditions, the results of which lead to the establishing of the Weld Blundell collection in The Ashmolean museum
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Estimate £800-1,200
S1 - Sold as a Section 1 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act