A pair of vintage shotguns owned by rock legend Eric Clapton have sold at auction – for a staggering £84,000.
The rare Boss & Co 12-bore single trigger over and under guns were the star lots at the Gavin Gardner auction held at Sotheby’s in London with firearm lovers battling it out to get their hands on the weapons.
After a tense battle the hammer went down with an unnamed European collector paying £84,000 for the pair – the same as a Porsche 911 or a three-bedroom house in Cheshire.
Built in 1927, the Boss & Co ‘over and under’ weapons are two of the most revered vintage shotguns ever produced with the barrels placed on top of each other as opposed to the conventional side-by-side layout.
The shotguns would have taken a Boss & Co gunmaker more than 18 months to meticulously construct – and are as good as the weapons made by the London company today.
Auction organiser Gavin Gardner said: “Boss is the most exclusive of the London gunmakers having only made a small number of guns in their history.
“The over and under are the most collectable of English shotguns thanks to their timeless, elegant and beautiful design.”
Boss & Co has been making the ‘over and under’ shotgun for 101 years and has produced less than 500 of the weapons with only eight currently made a year, with a five-year waiting list.
The £84,000 pair were part of four Boss & Co lots being auctioned off by iconic guitarist Eric Clapton, a prolific collector of vintage guns who famously covered the Bob Marley classic ‘I Shot the Sherrif’.
Two of his other lots went for £30,000 and £39,000 respectively while the remaining guns are expected to fetch somewhere in a similar region to the 1927 pair – earning the 65-year-old musical icon a cool £230,000.
Buying a vintage gun in excellent working order is a good idea, according to one industry expert.
Alexander Andover of Guntrader.co.uk added: “The gun industry is a great way to spend your money during these economic times as a decent gun is an investment which you get a lot of enjoyment out of.”
is it just me that thought of lock stock when i saw this?
The author used the word ‘weapon’ 4 times in that short piece. Those guns are not weapons.