Bob,

This is the kind of thing I find really interesting! In the last decade of the 19th century 22-24 pounds represented the annual salary of a cook or housemaid. Who among us would not LOVE to buy a nice new and hand built brit double for 1.5x the annual salary of a cook or housemaid?

Using a more generalized index of "average" earnings as a baseline, the equivalent retail value of 35 pounds in 1896 is more technically shown to be only $26,560 today! Further, although gold is often thought to be the great inflation hedge, it falls short. The current value of a gold sovereign is about $355 (an all time nominal high and with no numismatic premium) which means that your 35 pound rifle would (should?) be selling for $12,425. Just a few years ago when gold was low, the rifles original price would have had a contemporary value of only $8750 in gold terms. Even if gold reaches it's all time "real" high, the thirty five british pounds from 1896 will only have a value of about $19,897.

I guess what the above means is that the 19th century old timers were getting pretty damned good deals on these weapons! It also seems to mean that any "lower end" brit double that would have sold for 35 pounds back in the day is "worth" between $20K and $26K...historically speaking. Of course, they say a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and value of nothing.....so one must acknowledge that there is no accounting for the value of the patina a rifle may have earned over a century of chasing elephants!!!