J.P. Sousa's Purdey

[Alfred Houde]

Good morning:

Does anyone happen to know the whereabouts of Sousa's Purdey? A number of years ago I wrote an article about his two L.C. Smith shotguns held in the collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps. I'd like to do one on his Purdey.

I know that he had a wide range of shotguns and nearly all were sold by his family. I have not located it in any museum collections, so I'm pretty sure that it is in private ownership. A notation in the Purdey ledger shows it with a new owner in 1983, which would be a year after the L.C. Smith guns were donated to the old Marine Corps Museum. I'm sure it has changed hands since. Maybe not.

Anyway, it's a long shot but worth the effort. Thanks in advance for any information.

[MrBojangles]

Do we have a list of all of Sousa’s shotguns by make and serial number?

I’m a HUGE fan of his and would love to stumble across one in the wild.

[Bill Murphy]

Several of Sousa's guns have been located and identified, but according to his son, there were many many guns in the family. I have cowritten articles on two of Sousa's guns that are in my collection. One is the Daly Sextuple that he shot in the years before Ithaca built him a unique Grade 7 single barrel. The Ithaca resides in the ATA museum as I recall. The serial number of the Purdey is known. Al Houde kindly obtained information on the Purdey and shared the Purdey correspondence with me. I seem to remember a Parker repair order that mentions a Sousa Purdey being sent to Meriden for freshening. After examining thousands of Parker repair orders, this is the only one I recall for a gun not a Parker. Sousa was a preferred customer at Parker Brothers I assume.

[Alfred Houde]

In the narrative letter that his grandson wrote and provided to the Marine Corps Museum for the two L.C. Smith shotguns he mentions that JPS had a lot of shotguns. the Purdey and a Parker are specifically mentioned.

[Alfred Houde]

"Sousa was a preferred customer at Parker Brothers I assume."

He was a preferred customer at a lot of places, lol. Either Cecil or Athol Purdey himself selected the wood for his order.

[Bill Murphy]

Mr. Civco, the serial number of Sousa's AAH Grade Parker is known also. It was sold at Alderfer's Auction a while back. I was the "underbidder" to the successful bidder. I know who bought the gun, but I have been told that it has been resold.

[Bill Murphy]

Search "sousa parker" and click on the thread "Guns of J. P. Sousa" and you will read about the sale of Sousa's AAH as well as Al's and my search for the Purdey. At the end of that thread is a group of Sousa pictures with guns as well as a link to pictures of the last Sousa Grade Knick, which is also in my possession. I will try to get pictures of Sousa's Diamond Grade Daly double pigeon gun. It was made in the exact form as his AAH Parker, including the engraving pattern. Both guns are 30", straight grip, no safety guns. The Daly is the only no safety Daly pigeon gun I have ever seen. Both engraved with all scroll, no birds or dogs. All scroll on a Diamond Daly is very uncommon, maybe unique. Both the Parker and the Daly were made in the same period, very late 1890's. It came through the same auction house as the two guns I wrote the articles about. Apparently, all three guns were in the same household before they were consigned to a PA auction.

[Bill Murphy]

In the search I mentioned, also read Frank Halsey's great post. Frank outbid me on the 34" SC 20 gauge single, died after writing a nice Parker Pages article on it. His family sent it to another auction house where I was able to purchase it. Frank had a wonderful collection of single traps that we discussed over dinner at a couple of earlier Southern Side by Sides.

[Kevin McCormack]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Apparently, all three guns were in the same household before they were consigned to a PA auction.

Yes; the AAHE was found carefully preserved in a steamer trunk in the attic of the family descendant's (grand niece?) home I believe in NC. I don't know if the other two were consigned at the same time as the AAHE but all three went to the PA auction house. People taking care of them knew what they had and treated them accordingly, thank goodness!