Details of Lot 223
HENRY ATKIN
A PAIR OF 12-BORE SELF-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTOR GUNS, NOS. 2346/7, BUILT FOR LORD IVOR CHURCHILL

28-inch replacement chopper-lump barrels by the maker, with 2 3/4-inch chambers about 1/4 and 1/2 choke borings, the frames, locks and gold numbered top levers with fine bouquet and scroll engraving and retaining some original hardening colour, 15 1/2-inch highly figured replacement stock, 6lb. 10oz., nitro proof, in their maker's brassbound oak and leather case

The maker confirms that the guns were built for Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill in 1919 for his 21st birthday and that the guns were rebarelled by themselves in 1970. The guns have been little used since.

Lord Ivor Charles Spencer-Churchill (1898-1956) was the younger son of the 9th Duke of Marlborough. His first wife, the former Consuelo Vanderbilt, was an American railroad heiress and his elder brother, John, was the the 10th Duke of Marlborough. Spencer-Churchill was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford before joining the Royal Army Service Corps in 1917 and gaining the rank of lieutenant. He fought in the First World War and was decorated with the French Legion of Honour. He married Elizabeth Cunningham on November 15 1947 and had a son, Robert William Charles (born 1954). He developed an inoperable brain tumour and died in September 1956. He is buried beside his cousin, Sir Winston Churchill and close to this mother at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Sold for £12000
Fine Modern and Vintage Sporting Guns
Sotheby's, New Bond Street
14 April 2010
Commission is 25% ex. VAT. Artist's Resale Right may apply