Product Details
* MADE FOR H.M. THE KING OF ITALY
HOLLAND & HOLLAND
A 12-BORE 'ROYAL' SIDELOCK NON-EJECTOR 1885 FOSBERY PATENT 'PARADOX' RIFLED-CHOKE SHOT AND BALL GUN, serial no. 15521,
for 1900, 28in. nitro barrels, raised matt sight rib with two folding leaf sights, bead fore-sight, tubes engraved 'HOLLAND & HOLLAND 98 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON. '"PARADOX" FOSBERY PATENT' and gold-inlaid 'VI' at the breech end, 2 1/2in. chambers, Fosbery patent rifled chokes, patent no. 7568 of 1885, toplever gold-inlaid 'VI', automatic safety with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' detail, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, best 'Royal' scroll engraving with the makers name in elaborate cartouches on the lockplates, the underside with a further cartouche engraved 'Royal Hammerless Gun', retaining some original colour-hardening and finish, 14 1/4in. figured stock including buttplate, setting crack to rear of right lockplate, with sling swivels, weight 7lb. 3oz.
Provenance: The makers have kindly confirmed that this gun was completed in early 1900, being 'shot & regulated' in January and 'finally shot' in February, for the King of Italy, to pair with paradox gun No. 15516.
Umberto I, born 14th March 1844, was the King of Italy from 9th January 1878 until his assassination on the 29th July 1900.
Educated in the military, as the Crown Prince, he fought in the war against Austria with great aplomb and earned much popularity in a time where a prevailing antimonarchist sentiment was growing in Italy. His accession to the throne in 1878 further increased his popularity with his attempts to reconcile the various political and regional elements within Italy and he successfully led the country out of isolation by joining in a triple alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany. He was a firm advocate of expanding Italy's colonial reach - with mixed results. A disastrous defeat by the Ethiopians at the battle of Adwa in 1896, combined with a tariff war with France led to increased social unrest which resulted in him imposing martial law in 1898. The repression that followed exacerbated social tensions to a grave height, giving rise to an ever increasing socialist party (including a young Benito Mussolini amongst its ranks) very active in protesting against the crackdown on civil liberties, with a strong anti-colonial and antimonarchist sentiment. Things came to a head following the massacre of demonstrators protesting about the price of bread by the military under General Beccaris in Milan, who ordered both rifle and artillery fire upon them.
On the 29th July 1900, a young Italian-American anarchist, Gaetano Bresci assassinated the King, shooting him four times, declaring his motivation for the assassination being to avenge the deaths of those who died in Milan
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Estimate £4,000-6,000
S1 - Sold as a Section 1 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act