James Purdey
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| Private | |
| Industry |
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| Fate | Purchased by Compagnie Financière Richemont SA (1994) |
| Founded | London (1814) |
| Founder | James Purdey |
| Headquarters | London, England |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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James Horne, Chairman |
| Products | |
| Services |
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Number of employees
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59 |
| Parent | Compagnie Financière Richemont SA |
| Website | purdey |
James Purdey & Sons, or simply "Purdey", is a famous British gunmaker of London, specialising in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. Purdey holds three Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families.
James Purdey founded James Purdey & Sons Limited in London, England in 1814, locating his business on Princes Street.
Prior to starting out on his own, Purdey worked as head stocker for Joseph Manton, the foremost gunmaker of his time. In 1826 the company moved from the Princes Street location to Manton's former premises in Oxford Street.
The founder's son, James Purdey the Younger, took over the running of the company from his father in 1858. James the Younger saw rapid change in the development and design of guns and rifles during his lifetime, essentially moving from muzzle loading flintlocks in the 1820s to breech loading hammerless ejectors by the 1880s. James the Younger was always at the forefront of advances in the design and building of his guns and rifles, and took out several patents for technical innovations over the years. Many of James the Younger's patents were adopted by other gunmakers.
In 1882 the company moved from Oxford Street to new premises on the corner of South Audley Street and Mount Street, where the company remains to this day. James the younger designed this building to accommodate his showroom, the factory, and later the building provided living quarters for James' family. The City of Westminster unveiled a memorial plaque on the shop at 57-60 South Audley Street on 30 April 1992.
Purdey guns moved briskly from flintlock to percussion cap to hammer centre-fire guns and then to the self-opening hammerless gun of 1880. This hammerless self opening mechanism was designed by Frederick Beesley, a Purdey worker of the time, and used one limb of a V spring to operate the internal hammers and the other to operate the self opening feature. Beesley sold the patent to Purdey in 1880 for £55. This was followed ten years later by the incorporation of ejectors. Apart from continual refinement and the optional single trigger mechanism, very little change has subsequently been made to the design of the side by side gun.
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Wikipedia