The Royal revolution

Holland & Holland is renowned for its classically elegant Royal guns, which are much coveted and much copied, reveals Diggory Hadoke

- Diggory Hadoke

Mark Sullivan works quietly at his bench, producing the heart of many bespoke gun building projects. An actioner by trade, he used to work at Holland & Holland. Now he works for the wider trade, happy to let someone else put their name to his work while he remains quietly anonymous to 99% of the shooting public.

Mark has little interest in guns or gun talk; he doesn’t shoot. When he puts his tools down, he leaves the job in the workshop. However, if you want to build a Best-quality bespoke shotgun, Mark Sullivan is your man and the Holland & Holland ‘Royal’ is the action he will make for you, like he has for me, for William Evans, for William & Son, Westley Richards and numerous others over the years.

Of course, ‘Royal’ is a trademark. Holland & Holland began using the term to describe its Best sidelock in the early 1880s. It does not designate a mechanism, more a reference to the highest quality offered by the firm.

Three hammerless guns have carried the Royal badge of honour (not including double rifles). The first model with dipped-edge lock-plates was designed by John Robertson — later proprietor of Boss. It was replaced in the 1890s with a second model, more conventional looking with smooth bar-locks and stocked to the fences in what became known as the ‘London pattern’.

Self-opening