Here is another one,a somewhat lengthy story. Many may consider it a piece of junk. I rather think about it as sort of a joke. It may be a witness of some European history. At least it is a story to tell. My story may sound like a lie, but it is nothing but the truth.
It was in 1991, shortly after the breakdown of communist rule in eastern Europe, when I visited the local Waffen Frankonia shop to buy some ammo. I was standing in the spacious shop waiting for attention of a salesman, as usual. Frankonia then had on offer at DM 168.- each, about $ 110.- then, a whole rack of worn out shotguns in terrible shape, converted for legal reasons to 9mm blank firing only. As I learned later they had imported a whole truckload of former Kolchos guns from Romania. Most of the guns were utility grade, post war Suhl boxlocks and cheap Brno sidelocks. Two men were standing at that rack, musing about that heap of junk, about five paces away. One of them said to the other “Do you expect to find a Purdey here?” while he put a sidelock back into the rack. Seeing this, my first thought was “hey, that isn’t a Brno”. I walked over and pulled that gun from the rack. At first glance: A really sorry affair. Rust pitted, restocked by some village carpenter, wood “finished” with a rasp and some floor varnish. Obviously once stolen, as all outside markings were removed with a prick punch and ground off. Everithing covered in dirt and gunk. Second glance: That carpenter had used a quite decent piece of walnut for restocking. Traces of fine rose and scroll engraving under the gunk. London View Mark on watertable. Beesley’s self opening action. So I bought it immediately, just for fun, as it was nothing else than a Purdey! Those two blokes obviously had no idea what a Purdey sidelock looks like. On taking it apart I found the serial number 12724 inside the action and small “1”s on each part, showing it was once number one of a pair.

What to do now with that unshootable relic? I then owned another shotgun from the opposite end of the market, price wise: A Brazilian Rossi 12 bore hammer coachgun with 20” barrels and a broken lock, all legal information as to maker and serial number on the barrels. This short barreled gun had seved my brush hunting purposes well until the right tumbler broke. These barrels had the same breech end dimensions as the Purdey, the underlumps and blind (without crossbolt) top extension oversize in all dimensions. Many hours of careful filing fitted these barrels to the Purdey action.

Later I sleeved the original barrels too, but I use it most often with the short Brazilian barrels.
Some years later, when in London, of course I visited Purdey’s . The young salesman there was so kind to look the serial number up in their ledger books. The gun was built in 1887 as No.1 of a pair and sold in London. Description: 12 bore top lever hammerless non-ejector with hidden third grip, 30” barrels, nearly plain and modified (= choked like my 20" barrels), stock length 14.3/8”, weight 6lbs12ozs. He even was so kind to give me a name meaningless to him: Karolyi
A search in an old encyclobedia (pre-google times) revealed: The Hungarian Magnate Count Alajos Karolyi of Nagykaroly, 1825-1889, was Austro-Hungarian ambassador in London from 1878 to 1888. He was certainly the original owner of the gun. Here he is, from a painting of the 1878 Congress of Berlin.

The Karolyi’s of Nagykaroly were one of the oldest Hungarian noble families, going back to about 800 when the Magyars invaded the country that was to become Hungary. To describe Alajos Karolyi as a big landowner is a gross understatement. His estates stretched from now Slovakia to now Romania. I have a book by his son, Louis Karolyi, about his hunting life in the Danubian Region stacked away somewhere. Simply unbelievable! If I find it, I will add some details.