Guitar God's Guns to Go Under the Gavel (Clapton is a shooter!!!)

On a warm Friday evening in the summer of 1965, I was dragged to a Guildford, Surrey dance club called the Ricky Tick by a reluctant cousin. He had come to meet his girlfriend, but I had come to see John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and their new guitarist, Eric Clapton. What I heard that evening was, for me, epiphanal. I recall later telling my father, who was dying at the time, that I’d heard a man bend guitar strings until they sounded like someone singing. I began to understand why fellow Mods wrote “Clapton is God” on the walls of the London Underground.

All these years later Eric Clapton is not only still with us, he has done what a lot of successful chaps have done in the past, he has taken up shooting. Now, 13 of his shotguns are to go under the hammer, so to speak, at Holt’s Auctioneers in the UK. A raft of Purdeys and pairs by E. J. Churchill, Watson Brothers, and William Evans will be auctioned off December 11th and could fetch as much as £500,000.

Clapton has claimed that his passion has gotten out of hand in much the same way his guitar collection did. “It’s following the same pattern as when I collected guitars, cars and watches. I start out with a fairly broad spectrum, get obsessed and engulfed and finally narrow the collection down. I built a gunroom that can house a certain amount of guns and now I have to clear the decks for the new guns I have on order.” One of Clapton’s guns even features a vignette of Slowhand himself picking an acoustic under a tree. The scene is by Marcus Hunt. All have the escutcheon engraved with the guitarist’s initials, “EPC”. Several of the others feature classic English scroll by famed Brit engravers such as Martin Smith, Simon Coggan and Wesley Tallett. If they have a consistent theme it is of English scroll surrounding a solitary glowing rose. There are many reasons to engrave a rose—that most British of symbols—on a London gun, but Mr. Clapton has made the flower his own, even recording a couple of songs with “rose” in the title. Clapton was born in 1945, the son of 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and 24-year-old Canadian soldier Edward Walter Fryer, who were not married. Fryer shipped off to war prior to Clapton's birth, then returned to Canada. Clapton grew up with his loving grandmother, believing her to be his mother. And her name?

A FINE AND UNUSED PAIR OF MARCUS HUNT-ENGRAVED 20-BORE SINGLE-TRIGGER SELF-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTORS, serial no. 20060 / 1, 28in. nitro chopperlump barrels, ribs engraved 'WILLIAM EVANS LIMITED. 67A, ST. JAMES'S STREET. LONDON. S.W.1.' and gold-inlaid '1' and '2', 2 3/4in. chambers, bored approx. imp cyl and 1/4 choke, actions incorporating Holland & Holland type self-opening systems, semi-selective single-triggers, rolled-edge triggerguards, automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, the actions, lockplates and furniture deeply engraved with best bold acanthus scrolls on a matt background, the pinless lockplates very finely engraved with vignettes of Eric Clapton; gun No.1 with him sat against a tree playing an acoustic guitar (left side) and catching a trout on the fly (right); gun No.2 with him having cast a fly (left) and partridge shooting (right), all signed 'M.A. Hunt', the undersides set with colour-hardened roundels, gold-inlaid with the monogram 'W.E.', bright finish overall, 14 5/8in. highly-figured stocks, weight 6lb. 6oz., with gold escutcheons bearing the initials 'E.P.C.' in their brass-cornered oak and leather case with full complement of William Evans accessories and canvas and leather outer cover. The makers have kindly confirmed that the guns were completed mid 2007.

A UNIQUE, DELUXE TALLETT-ENGRAVED 12-BORE SINGLE-TRIGGER OVER AND UNDER SIDELOCK EJECTOR, serial no. 29840, 28in. nitro barrels with matt game rib and side-ribs, scroll engraved at the breech end, over barrel engraved 'J. PURDEY & SONS. AUDLEY HOUSE. SOUTH AUDLEY STREET. LONDON. ENGLAND.', 2 3/4in. chambers, bored approx. 1/4 and 1/2 choke, hold-open toplever, automatic safety, non-selective single trigger, rolled-edge triggerguard, the action, lockplates and furniture deeply chiselled with bold acanthus and floral motifs on a matt background, the lockplates with vignettes of English partridge and mallard in flight and signed 'WEZ TALLETT', the underside with a pheasant, the side-bolsters carved in relief with the makers name, the fore-end iron decorated en suite, bright finish overall, 14 3/4in. highly-figured stock with Prince of Wales grip and carved steel pistolgrip-cap, gold escutcheon engraved 'E.P.C.', weight 7lb. 7oz., in its lightweight leather motor case with accessories. The makers have kindly confirmed that the gun was completed in May 2003.

AN EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF UNUSED, COGGAN-ENGRAVED, 12-BORE ROUND-BODIED SINGLE-TRIGGER SELF-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTORS, serial no. 30117 / 8, 28in. nitro chopperlump barrels, ribs gold-inlaid '1' and '2', tubes engraved 'J. PURDEY & SONS. LONDON. ENGLAND.', 2 3/4in. chambers, bored approx. 1/4 and 1/2 choke, self-opening actions with rounded bars, pinless lockplates, automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details in gothic script, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, non-selective single-triggers, the fences deeply carved in relief with grape and vine motifs, the actions, lockplates and furniture fully engraved with bold arabesques interspersed with floral bouquets, all on a matt background, the lockplates relief engraved and gold-inlaid with a single English rose, the makers name gold-inlaid in gothic script within a scrolled ribbon, the fore-end irons decorated en-suite and also gold-inlaid 'Purdey' in gothic script, the triggerplates signed 'S. COGGAN', bright finish overall, 14 1/2in. highly-figured stocks, gold escutcheons engraved 'E.P.C.', weight 6lb. 12oz., in their lightweight leather motor case with accessories and canvas outer. The makers have kindly confirmed that the guns were completed in November 2004.

A MAGIFICENT PAIR OF DELUXE COGGAN-ENGRAVED 20-BORE SINGLE-TRIGGER OVER AND UNDER SIDELOCK EJECTORS, serial no. 30263 / 4, 29in. ribless nitro barrels, the breech ends with bold scroll engraving and gold-inlaid '1' and '2', over barrels engraved 'J. PURDEY & SONS. LONDON. ENGLAND.', 2 3/4in. chambers, bored approx. 1/2 and full choke, hold-open toplevers, automatic safeties with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' details, rounded bars, gold-inlaid cocking-indicators, non-selective single-triggers, rolled-edge triggerguards, the actions, lockplates and furniture fully engraved with bold arabesques interspersed with floral bouquets, all on a matt background, the lockplates relief engraved and gold-inlaid in three colour gold with a single English rose, the makers name gold-inlaid in gothic script within a scrolled ribbon, the fore-end irons decorated en-suite and also gold-inlaid 'Purdey' in gothic script, the triggerplates signed 'S. COGGAN', bright finish overall, 14 1/2in. highly-figured pistolgrip stocks with carved steel pistolgrip-caps, gold escutcheons engraved 'E.P.C.', weight 6lb. 7oz., in their fitted reptilian skin motor case with accessories and canvas outer. The makers have kindly confirmed that the guns were completed in April 2007.

Like the HOMO’s we need to out every prominent gun owner. Especially in Hollywood the Hypocrisy is palpable. Remember the history Syndicated columnist and television commentator Carl T. Rowan, who has preached for years about the need for handgun control, broke up an unauthorized 2 a.m. pool party in his back yard Tuesday by calling the police and then winging one of the teen-age intruders with a single shot from his unregistered Smith & Wesson revolver. “Somebody will see irony in this,” said a terse Rowan, one of the most prominent journalists in America. “But I don’t.”

Rowan, 62, said he fired his .22-caliber pistol only after one of the trespassers ignored his warning and lunged at him as if he were heading into the house.

The “EXCEPTIONAL PAIR OF UNUSED, COGGAN-ENGRAVED, 12-BORE ROUND-BODIED SINGLE-TRIGGER SELF-OPENING SIDELOCK EJECTORS” would be great on a driven-bird shoot, don’t you think?

"I'd no idea that Clapton was a shooter.

Neither did I, and given the dissappointment and angst I feel this morning I somehow find it a pleasant thing to know. It also happens that I'm going my local trap range today. Perhaps I'll call for the targets with "Layla" rather than "pull" to commemorate (doing air-guitar with my Red Label).

I read somewhere that big time gun control advocate Steven Spielberg has one of the biggest gun collections in the world. I imagine that Slowhand believes in gun control also. Gun control is all about controlling our guns, not the elites. Don’t misunderstand, I love Clapton’s blues works. Have lots of his albums. His unplugged MTV album is one of the best albums ever made IMO.

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