Evening Gents
Are there any UK Establishments/Museums out there that collect and preserve the classics and rarities on this side of the pond or do the majority of collections get auctioned off and disappear overseas.
Evening Gents
Are there any UK Establishments/Museums out there that collect and preserve the classics and rarities on this side of the pond or do the majority of collections get auctioned off and disappear overseas.
I strongly doubt it. Places like the IWM, Royal Armouries or the SASC in Warminster are into military things, not airguns.
I think most private collections are either auctioned or sold privately, but most of what is sold stays in the U.K.
Given the number of UK collectors I see buying from Germany, we may actually be a net importer of vintage and collectible airguns.
I know of one establishment that preserves old air rifles.
Some jolly nice plump chap in Surrey....
I believe John McCrossen's Webley collection ended up in a museum. Not many collections are good enough, frankly, and not many families of collectors can afford to/are willing to forgo the value of the guns when bereaved, which is often necessary to guarantee the guns stay together...
Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
Nothing guarantees that collections will stay together. Many museums sell donated items to raise funds and in this politically correct society we live in , guns are the first to be got rid of. Manchester had one of the greatest collection of arms and armour in the country but most of it was sold off in the 1970's when the local authority wanted to wash it's hands of it. A few items were put in storage in case they were ever needed but have not been heard of or seen in public since. arms with a local or famous connection may be kept, the rest are funds to support everything else.
a good example is War medals. museums get donated so many that they cannot afford the storage or display case space. They will keep a representative sample and anything special will be retained. The others will be quietly sent to auction . I know of several cases of people finding medals up for sale when they had previously been donated to an institution for posterity.
Vintage Airguns Gallery
..Above link posted with permission from Gareth W-B
In British slang an anorak is a person who has a very strong interest in niche subjects.
The Royal armoury in Leeds does have a display of airguns. It's not a major part of the museum but it's there I'll see if I can find a snap.
Dave
Smell my cheese
Yes, but they have already have some very rare and important military weapons buried in the vault and not (never) on show. The airguns would end up crated up in there.
They seem much more interested in putting on medieval shows for kids than anything else.
Which makes economic sense, now that all museums (pre-COVID) moved from being academic centres of study to kids’ entertainment.
Of course, that’s sad.
John McCrossen's collection, or a goodly part of it, went to the Birmingham Proof House Museum, who already had a good selection of different guns on display, but space is limited and quite a lot of their collections are in storage. Access is somewhat limited at present and the current custodians seem reluctant to arrange visits to the museum.
I think Danny's excellent web site is better than any Museum. you can view from the comfort of your own room.
I've no idea, it was a bit of a flying visit on the way back from Scotland.
Museums are getting a bit of a slating, but what alternative is there? Funding is low on the priority list and it isn't going to get any better. They have to do what they have to do to stay above water. As for appealing to the kids, again it's what they have to do. When ours were young, we took them to anything educational near to where we were at the time. These days, I'm museumed out. Something has really got to appeal to me to go to one. In fact, I actively avoid them.
There's no excuse for poor curation though, that's just bad lazy.
Dave
Smell my cheese
It's not under the same building, but another building nearby. When I was there a few years ago they said they can't dispose of anything in the collection - hence they have loads of some types that they can't sell/trade to get new stuff...
You can visit for research if you have a reason and some sort of authority FAC/RFD etc. They were very accommodating and more than happy for us to play with stuff we weren't there to actually see...