An unusual weapon specially made for the eldest son of Maharaja Dalip Singh will go under the hammer at London on April 4. Commissioned for Prince Victor Dalip Singh when he was all of 15, the .12 bore hammer gun was made by J. Purdey and Sons. Bonhams auctioneers have put its price between £2000 and £3,000.
The gun is thought to have been used for many of the shooting parties that were hosted by Dalip Singh at his country estate of Elveden in Norfolk, which was sold to the Earl of Iveagh in 1894 after Dalip Singh’s death in Paris.
Victor, like his younger brother Frederick, was one of the best shots of his day. British records show how the two brothers hosted a shooting party at Elveden in the early 1890s when they bagged 846 partridges before lunch, stopping only because they ran out of cartridges.
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