Sitting in my father’s old chair in the spot where members of my family have catalogued antiques for the past 120 years, I gazed across shelves filled with broadswords, serpentine Turkish blades and fine flintlock pistols. Although there was a mountain of items to research and catalogue, rather than fill me with dread at the task ahead, my head bounced with excitement, wondering what treasures might lay within the pile of metal and wood. Immediately, my eyes were drawn to a percussion fowling piece.
Sliding it carefully off the shelf, I could not help but mount the piece and gaze down its wide rib to the bead sight ahead. Though at first glance it was a fairly typical shotgun, with a familiar 12-bore and classic side-by-side stock profile, it had been produced to a finer standard than most. The maker, Williams &
