Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/68594
T F Over the years Westley Richards continued to innovate, working on electric harpoons for the whaling industry, while maintaining the firm's sporting gun profile through its Mayfair shop, then run by Malcolm Lyell, who later became a director of Holland and Holland. The actor Stewart Grainger, in his memoirs, Sparks Fly Upward, relayed a touching story about Lyell. Grainger had just bought a gun that had originally been made for crack shot and good customer Count Potocki. Wrote Grainger: "He had been incredibly rich before the war but had now lost everything. Malcolm told me a sad story about the Prince shyly asking if he could borrow a pair of shotguns, as he had been invited to the Duke of somebody or other's shoot. Not only did Malcolm lend him the guns but also he went to the trouble and expense of having the Prince's initials engraved on the stocks and his crest embossed on the gun cases so that it wouldn't appear that the guns were borrowed. Apparently, the prince had wept at this thoughtful gesture." he Mayfair shop was closed in the mid 1950s, and the company sold in 1957 to Captain Walter Clode, a former army officer. Walter Clode took a great interest in the order books, which showed how much had been done for the Indian princes. He made it a priority to acquire antique guns from the princely armories, then recondition and sell them in the UK and U.S. to discerning collectors. He also helped revive the art of gun engraving. Walter's son, Simon Clode has run Westley Richards since 1994. Since he joined in 1987 Simon Clode has helped reintroduce many of the classic Westley Richards guns of the golden age of hunting. He started in 1989 with .410 detachable lock guns and never looked back; in 2004 the company introduced the famous Ovundo shotgun. Simon Clode is dedicated to the highest possible quality in gun craftsmanship, and has invested in the retention of skilled craftsmen while expanding the firm's apprenticeships. Westley Richards only makes bespoke guns today. Clients from all around the world are welcome to call in to the factory in Birmingham, an updated 19th century building close to the traditional Gun Quarter. Here, they can see their bespoke gun being made at any stage, and thus get a very intimate feel for the gun they will hold in their hands. The modern Westley Richards team feels that the secret of building the best gun that can be made (to paraphrase the motto of their founder) lies in maintaining a critical balance between pre-manufactured elements and hand craftsmanship. As the current foreman, Keith Thomas, himself the son of a well-known southern African professional hunter, observes: "Our clients see what we do, and know the pride and passion that has gone into it . . . it is the degree of hand finish that sets a Westley Richards gun apart." Note: Jeremy Musson is a historian and author, and a regular contributor to Country Life and The Field in the UK. rom top: Pair of exhibition 20-gauge Faunetta ball-and-shot guns made in 1911 with enameled portraits of the owner, HH Maharaja of Patiala. • Two pairs of 52-bore Westley Richards percussion and 40-bore flintlock pistols. • This side-by- side rifle features spectacular relief steel engraving of African elephants by Vince Crowley. Opposite: Made in 1911, this Number Two of a pair of Modele de Luxe .318 detachable-lock double rifles is fitted with a Carl Zeiss scope. The photograph shows King Edward VII (as prince of Wales) and his entourage posed around the first tiger he killed on his 1875 tour in India. SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 128