Collector shells out £15,000 for Lady Meux's shotgun

December 2020. We are in the dark days of Covid and Lady Valerie Meux leaps back into the limelight when a shotgun which once belonged to her came up for auction.

The Press salivated, relishing in the story of the banjo-playing prostitute who married into the Victorian aristocracy. Interest from gun collectors was worldwide, bids coming from Australia, South Africa, the USA, Australia and Europe and the UK.

The rare 28-bore bar-in-wood toplever hammergun, serial number 11117, was made in 1882 by J. Purdey & Sons of Oxford Street London.

The finer details of the gun are probably meaningless to most people but here they are ... 29 3/4in. sleeved nitro barrels (in 2000), the rib engraved 'J. PURDEY & SONS. 314 1/2, OXFORD STREET. LONDON.', 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. 1/4 and 3/4 choke, bar-in-wood, carved percussion fences, rebounding sidelocks with dolphin hammers, action flat, barrel lump and fore-end iron engraved '2', best fine bouquet and scroll engraving, retaining very slight traces of colour-hardening and finish, 14 1/2in. well figured stock including 2 1/8in. wooden extension, fore-end with Anson push-rod release catch, weight 4lb. 15oz..

It came in its maker's oak and leather case with some accessories and fitted with charge label, the lid with brass escutcheon inscribed: LADY MEUX, Theobald's Park, Waltham Cross.

Holts Auctioneers, based in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, estimated the lot would make between £3,000 and £5,000 but sold for £15,000.

The final bid came from an undisclosed UK buyer.

Who now owns the shotgun and where is it now? Nobody will say.

But wouldn't it be fitting if it found its way back to the Theobald's Park area? Perhaps that is what happened.

Perhaps ...