Of the humble but, in my opinion, very collectable British pre-war push barrel pistols, the Garanta has to be one of the rarest. I have only come across a handful of examples in more than 30 years of collecting. Even rarer would be the box for one of these, especially as boxes for push-barrel pistols in general have a very low survival rate. Wonder of wonders, a boxed Garanta has now appeared in auction: http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/au...3-a402010d22e8.

Now if only someone could tell me who made the Garanta, and what its connection was with the virtually identical Briton, Milbro and Limit pistols of the same period.

Still one of the great unsolved mysteries of the vintage airgun scene.