Are there Establishments/Museums that Collect Airguns out there......

[JustinThyme]

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.

[Geezer]

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.

[Binners]

I know of one establishment that preserves old air rifles.
Some jolly nice plump chap in Surrey....

[Garvin]

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...

[WebleyWombler]

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...

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.

[Garvin]

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.

Yes, well maybe not in the long term. As you suggest, nothing will guarantee that.

[Unframed Dave]

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

[Geezer]

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

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.

[Troubledshooter]

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.

[bighit]

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.

Alex from SACS was told some of the historical airguns that may be handed into due to the AWL up here would likely go to the leeds museum or any others that did not have examples already.

Not sure if that happened.

[bighit]

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

Is that the display with the HW45 with the shoulder stock Dave ?

Im sure there was a seperate display other than the one above also .

[piggy589]

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

Isn't the home office firearm testing facility situated underneath the museum?.
One of everything ever made available for the boffins to examine and test if need be.
I could be wrong.

[micky2]

I think Danny's excellent web site is better than any Museum. you can view from the comfort of your own room.

[Unframed Dave]

Isn't the home office firearm testing facility situated underneath the museum?.
One of everything ever made available for the boffins to examine and test if need be.
I could be wrong.

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

[Nick-StA]

Isn't the home office firearm testing facility situated underneath the museum?.
One of everything ever made available for the boffins to examine and test if need be.
I could be wrong.

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...