Best Guns by Michael McIntosh

Author:Michael McIntosh [MCINTOSH, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780892728473
Publisher: Down East Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Holland & Holland, Ltd.

Harris John Holland opened a shop at 5 King Street, Holborn, London, in 1835, the year Joe Manton died. Unlike James Purdey or Charles Lancaster or Thomas Boss or any of the others in the first great generation of modern English gunmakers, Holland never worked for Manton nor for any of Manton’s disciples. He was, in fact, a tobacconist and a would-be professional musician, not a practical gunmaker. He was also a keen sportsman, reportedly a splendid shot and a member of the London pigeon-shooting clubs at Old Red House and Hornsey Wood and the Old Hats Club. In 1835, he was twenty-nine years old.

According to Peter King’s book on Holland & Holland, titled The Shooting Field, Holland’s tobacco-shop customers—many of whom were keen shooting men—encouraged him to take up gunmaking. One longstanding legend has it that the King of Italy provided the financial backing; another, probably nearer the truth, that Holland’s working capital came as investments from some of his early customers.

In 1840, Harris Holland moved his business a few doors on, to 9 King Street. At around the same time, he became a gunmaker, in the sense of the word that denotes a businessman who contracts his products from outworkers and makers to the trade, and he sold his wares under the style H Holland or, rarely, HJ Holland. The transition from tobacconist to gunmaker came slowly, for Harris Holland described himself as tobacconist and gunmaker from about 1848 and solely as a gunmaker only after 1857.

We’ll never know who actually built his guns in those years, but you have only to look at the pieces bearing the H Holland name to see impeccable craftsmanship. Harris Holland clearly demanded best quality in every sort of firearm he sold, which amounted to nearly every sort available—from caplock pigeon guns and pistols, single and double Express and rook rifles to breechloaders of every description.

In 1860, Holland moved his business to 98 New Bond Street, in the heart of fashionable Mayfair, and took on his fifteen-year-old nephew, Henry Holland, as an apprentice gunmaker.

Henry Holland effectively became a working partner as soon as his indenture was completed in 1867, although formal articles of partnership weren’t drawn up until 1876, when Harris Holland retired. Thereafter, the company style was Holland & Holland.

According to what evidence remains, Harris Holland was not a particularly imaginative designer. His one patent, which he shared with clockmaker Walter Payton, was issued in 1861. It covered a breechloading action very similar to J.D. Dougall’s famous Lockfast action, patented two years earlier. Actions that functioned on the slide-and-drop principle were not, however, destined to become the standard, and the Holland and Payton version was forgotten even sooner than some of the others.

Both of the Hollands were astute businessmen and extremely skillful at recognizing items that could find favor with customers—like the self-cocking hammer gun patented in 1876 by Thomas Perkes. It appealed particularly to older men who were willing to accept breechloaders (and by no means all

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