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Yeah, I saw that gun in the catalog before the auction. Friend of mine bought a couple other pieces out of that same auction. The usual kicker with the rifles is bore condition, and the auction houses aren't very good about disclosing it.

Richard B. Rodda was a Birmingham maker who concentrated his marketing on India, so they sold quite a few double rifles. Rodda sold guns and rifles in a wide range of qualities. Most were boxlocks of a particularly uninspiring standard and, unfortunately, it is these that the company is best known for. As a result, Rodda has long been one of the unloved, red headed step children of the British trade. That's not to say that some of their guns were not of good quality. Some exceptional examples exist, but most were below par. I'll have to disagree with Mick. Pricewise, Roddas are no better than no names.

Rodda is said to have had a factory in Whittal Street, and I believe most of their basic boxlocks were possibly built there. None of these that I've handled have non-matching trade maker's numbers on the barrels, which would be the norm had they been built for Rodda by others. However, Rodda did also sell guns built for them by the trade. If Rodda had guns built for them by Webley & Scott, they did so very, very rarely. A few of their backlocks do appear to have possibly been W & C Scott products. For certain, however, none of the boxlocks were. The rifle in question certainly is not. This same bolstered action appears on guns from a number of different retailers, but I've never been able to trace the trade maker. I think Osborne is possible, but can't be sure yet. At any rate, it isn't Rodda's usual fare, and was probably of good original quality.

With the British auctions, due to current exchange, buyer's premium, and VAT on the premium, you have to multiply the hammer price by 2.5 to arrive at total price in US dollars. Thus the low estimate was $10,000. Assuming average bores, that's full FMV for this piece, which is probably why it didn't sell.

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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

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