February Auction Report 2025

February Auction Report 2025

Date of auction: 5^th & 6^th February

Number of lots: 1177

Number of online bidders: 2154 from 38 countries

Highest price achieved: Lot 1565 – James Purdey & Sons 12 bore assisted-opening side by side sidelock ejector shotgun with hand detachable locks– sold for £10,000

Surprise result of the auction: Lot 1575 Remington Model 1100 .410 3-shot semi-automatic shotgun – sold for £1,500

Auctioneer’s favourite lot: Lot 1260 – Heinrich Scherping of Hannover 9.3x70R double barrelled side by side rifle – sold for £2,700

The February auction at Harper Field saw our biggest and most successful gun auction ever, with over 2100 bidders online and a packed saleroom, something that has become quite a rarity at most auction houses.  

The gun section saw incredibly strong prices throughout, with only a handful of unsold lots giving us a sell though rate of over 99%. Gun specialist Stuart Maule put the overwhelming success down to a number of factors including strategic advertising on multiple platforms including Guntrader, a growing presence on social media and a video collaboration on Youtube which increased our worldwide reach, especially in the USA. In fact, there were over 50 people buying items from America, many of whom had never bid at auction in the UK before and were impressed that we could ship directly to them at such affordable prices.

Whilst the big ticket items by the likes of Purdey, Holland & Holland and Beretta hogged the limelight, with some selling for into the tens of thousands, some of the more remarkable prices were also achieved by lots with more affordable estimates. A perfect example being a Remington 1100 .410 semi-automatic shotgun, one of the lots that featured heavily in one of the YouTube videos, which sold for £1,500. The same model of gun was sold by another auction house under a year ago for less than half this amount.

Another gun that exceeded all expectations was an AYA 28 bore boxlock, which sold for well above estimate at £1,000. Auctioneer Stuart Maule was pleased with the selection of guns in the auction, there was definitely something for everyone. Some of the best modern sporting shotguns were a Beretta DT11 ACS that sold for £6,200 and a Longthorne Hesketh that sold for £7,400 and the sporting rifles sold equally as well with a Marlin Model 1894 Cowboy selling for over £900 and an ROA Interceptor selling for over £800.

But there weren’t just modern guns in this auction. The antique gun section featured a Winchester Model 1894 underlever rifle that sold for £3,000, a James Beattie .500 express rifle that sold for £4,000, a J M Bernie flintlock pistol that sold for £1,250, a Colt Derringer pistol that sold for £1,100 and no fewer than five blunderbusses all selling for over £1,400 each. 

Air guns also featured strongly, with an early Webley Mark I air pistol selling for £650, a Weihrauch HW99S air rifle selling for £350 and a Reximex Mito S air pistol selling for £300. The Reximex air pistol was one of the first lots consigned for the February auction enabling it to feature on the preview page for over two months, when it eventually sold over 120 people had added it to their online ‘watch list’. This highlights the importance of getting items to us in plenty of time before an auction, and with over 300 gun lots already consigned for the May auction this is now more important than ever.

The next auction at Harper Field is on the 12^th & 13^th March and will feature jewellery, silver, watches, coins, bijouterie and designer goods. We are open for viewing on 11^th March from 10am to 6pm and on the mornings of the auction from 9am-10pm.

We are still accepting items for our May auction, which will once again include specialist sections of guns & weapons, medals & militaria, taxidermy & sporting items and ceramics & glass.

If you are thinking of selling then we run free drop-in valuation sessions every Friday between 9am-4pm. If you wish to book an appointment with one of our specialists then please give us a call on 01453 873800. Alternatively just email images of your items to valuations@harperfield.co.uk and we will come back to you with a valuation.