The art of gunmaking

A triumph of creativity and technical ability, the magnificent 'First Spear' double rifle made by Westley Richards demonstrates true craftsmanship in action

- Matt Clark

IT WAS around half a century in the making. Engraving took 2,915 hours and a decade was devoted to its production. The result is one of the most stunningly original rifles of all time.

The seeds for the 'First Spear' double rifle were sown when a young boy saw a firearm in an American museum. It was the Holland & Holland .375 double rifle, completed in 1912 for Colonel Obaidullah Khan. The sideplates were fully enamelled and portrayed a tiger stalking its quarry in India. For more than 100 years it was the only firearm manufactured in such a way and most likely the only example known.

When the American boy grew up he tried to buy the Holland & Holland rifle but it was not for sale. Not to be defeated, in 2015 when he reached his fifties, he decided to commission a rifle to eclipse it. As a patron of Westley Richards for 30 years, when it came to creating the reality of this long-held dream it was to the Birmingham-based gunmaker he turned.

This is the story of the First Spear rifle and the men and women who dedicated up to a decade of their lives to creating it. Having edited two sporting magazines and shot throughout my life, I've seen many rifles and shotguns but this gun is a triumph of creativity, technical ability and craftsmanship on a scale I've not seen before. It has fused gunmaking and art, pushing it to the limit. The 213-yearold gunmaker believes that this is the only modern gun with this type of ornamentation in the world.