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

[BEAR1]

The Birmingham Proof house as mentioned have a good display. I went there a few years back with a group of friends. I cannot remember exactly but you have to have a minimum group for a visit a tour. Well worth a visit.

[Pop Alexandra]

The Birmingham Proof house as mentioned have a good display. I went there a few years back with a group of friends. I cannot remember exactly but you have to have a minimum group for a visit a tour. Well worth a visit.

I've been there a couple of months ago and I recommend it.
It's a bigger collection than I expected.
_______________________________
Alexandra from art storage

[walnutfarmmick]

Hi

I went along to my local museum with an old (330 years old) Samurai sword to see if I could get any info on it, They just wanted me to donate it to them all the time, I know that if I had donated it, I'd never see it again as it wouldn't get displayed so I gave them the elbow, It was a waste of time anyhow as they let a European sword specialist give an opinion on it that hadn't a clue about them!

John
I'm

When I was far more naive I lent some aviation collectables to an aircraft museum. The only way I’ll see then again is by buying a ticket. Sadly a common story.

Live and learn, Mick

[keith66]

About 30 years ago when my parents moved up north one of my dads friends took on the job of curator of a new Maritime museum at Barrow in furness.
We got a guided tour of the place one day. They had a warehouse full of stuff, much of it irrelavant to the museums remit.
Guns, swords, artefacts by the ton. None of it ever to see the light of day again & like many other such places with stringent rules that prevent disposal.
Im pretty sure the maritime museum folded & was replaced by something much smaller.
Personally the last place i would put anything is a museum!

[ccdjg]

IMO all museums should now, by law, list all their artefacts online, with detailed images and relevant information. Otherwise they are just black holes that swallow up and hide away all but the small percentage of items they choose to put on show. In 20 years of researching air pistols I have unearthed vastly more information from private collectors than any museum has been able to do. There must be many, many antique airguns mothballed in museums all over the world that have no online listing.

John

[Garvin]

IMO all museums should now, by law, list all their artefacts online, with detailed images and relevant information. Otherwise they are just black holes that swallow up and hide away all but the small percentage of items they choose to put on show. In 20 years of researching air pistols I have unearthed vastly more information from private collectors than any museum has been able to do. There must be many, many antique airguns mothballed in museums all over the world that have no online listing.

John

I completely agree with this. It's amazing to me that some people in charge of museums are so unimaginative that they don't see the value of harnessing technology to open up their collections to a wider view. It's already happening in some museums, but not nearly fast enough overall. E.g., we should all be able to view the complete John McCrossen Webley airgun collection online now.

if it's a lack of resources that's the problem, they should think about how online visits could be translated into cash. Not through advertising but by charging a small - and I mean small - fee to online visitors. It would add up soon enough if the offering is attractive enough. And as John suggests, they should be compelled to do it if they don't. Particularly if they are funded through public grants.

[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...

[elanmac]

I live near a museum that lets you handle the exhibits, not arms but but everything else. Unless you count an aircraft turret complete with machine guns that you can sit in. The museum started life at Boulton Paul Aircraft Co. It is now called Tettenhall Transport museum housed in the old engine shed at Tettenhall station. Well worth a visit especially if you have children. Large model train layout, motor cycles, bikes etc. Home guard memorabilia, stationary engines etc. It is run by volunteers and open weekends. The staff are collecting anything made locally and have a good selection of locally made objects.

[Binners]

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

Couldn’t have said it better myself

[ccdjg]

As I alluded to above, RA Leeds have a bad rep among serious researchers. They keep masses of stuff in the non-accesible vault. If you are (great bloke, btw) Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, they’ll let you in. A bit. Otherwise not. They are increasingly not in any way a centre for academic research, and more (pre-COVID) focussed on doing knights doing sword stuff to entertain nine-year olds.
In my judgement, they are highly unlikely to give a flying toss about airguns.

I’d be very happy to be proved wrong.

I think your judgement is perfectly right. A while back I browsed the Leeds RA limited collection of air pistols, almost all archived, unphotographed and never to be displayed, and found many errors of fact in their listed details. For example, the Dolla pistol, spelt wrongly as Dollar, stated to have been by T.J. Harrington, the Tell 2 claimed to have been by Sauer not Venuswaffenwerk are just two. Despite contacting the Curator twice and getting reassurances from his secretary that he would get back to me, he never did. So it is not just a failure to provide access, they also seem to be quite happy to spread disinformation.

John

[barnesr]

Couldn’t have said it better myself

But what is his website?????

[barnesr]

Back in the day (we're talking last century) the armoury at what was the Royal Military College of Science held what was supposedly the largest collection of small arms in Western Europe. As you can imagine it was quite the collection and I do recall a fair few airguns as well as regular firearms. Haven't got a clue as to what happened to it.....

[ratbuster2240]

The Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford is free to enter and has a gun display which includes some airguns.

https://youtu.be/VTXpJQ_hXZc

[ptdunk]

I think we as collectors are the best custodians for vintage airguns and the accompanying info, as long as we share the knowledge.

The arms expert in the Zella Mehlis Museum said there's not a huge amount of interest in Germany for old airguns (although there are some very serious German collectors) apparently after the war huge amounts of guns (including airguns) were taken by occupying forces, and most of the early records were destroyed so it's down to enthusiasts to piece the history together.
He told me he was surprised by how much he had learnt about early Zella Mehlis airguns from U.K and U.S collectors.

It would be interesting to see how much airgun history knowledge an average museum arms expert has, given that some areas are extremely specialist.
we've had some contributors on here uncovering previously unknown history and information. Has anyone ever chatted to a Museum Arms expert about early airguns?

I'd love to see a proper nerdy vintage airgun enthusiast (myself included) present something old and rare on Antiques Roadshow and see what the expert's knew that we didn't.

I agree the Vintage airguns gallery is the closest thing to an Airgun Museum.

Cheers,
Matt

[leh22]

I think we as collectors are the best custodians for vintage airguns and the accompanying info, as long as we share the knowledge.

The arms expert in the Zella Mehlis Museum said there's not a huge amount of interest in Germany for old airguns (although there are some very serious German collectors) apparently after the war huge amounts of guns (including airguns) were taken by occupying forces, and most of the early records were destroyed so it's down to enthusiasts to piece the history together.
He told me he was surprised by how much he had learnt about early Zella Mehlis airguns from U.K and U.S collectors.

It would be interesting to see how much airgun history knowledge an average museum arms expert has, given that some areas are extremely specialist.
we've had some contributors on here uncovering previously unknown history and information. Has anyone ever chatted to a Museum Arms expert about early airguns?

I'd love to see a proper nerdy vintage airgun enthusiast (myself included) present something old and rare on Antiques Roadshow and see what the expert's knew that we didn't.

I agree the Vintage airguns gallery is the closest thing to an Airgun Museum.

Cheers,
Matt

Some years back, I took a rare American butt reservoir pneumatic rifle ( early 1800's Philadelphia) to the Roadshow to get some thoughts on value. I had their arms "expert" examine it. He said it was the typical form frequently seen, and that I should be sure and clean the barrel after shooting it as the black powder is corrosive to the rifling in the steel barrel.

Okay, buddy....thanks for nothing!

LarryH