Winston Churchill’s man cave?
TTAG Has a great write up of Holland and Holland, perhaps one of the best known custom rifle and shotgun makers in the world. The company has been around since 1835 in the Oxford Circus part of London, so you can just imagine the types that have come through their doors.
It seems that they got a pretty in depth tour of the place.
“Holland & Holland actually holds the patent on this specific device, which is a tool used to measure shooters to ensure that their shotgun is perfect for their specific body. The way it works is that a shooting coach uses this special shotgun during a lesson with the buyer, continually making adjustments until both are satisfied with the fit of the gun. Then the tool is measured, and the measurements are transmitted to the factory to produce the firearm. This is one of the first tools used by the then-new Holland & Holland, as the tool was built from a different company’s shotgun.”
“One of the more impressive firearms was a matched pair of shotguns owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad. These smoothbores were manufactured in 1885, 16 years after he took power, and serve more as a symbol of the influence of English culture and history during the Empire’s rule in India than anything about the Nizam himself. Matched pairs of shotguns were a symbol of wealth in England, and so in order to fit in with the English ruling class, the Nizam had these shotguns made for him in the heart of the Empire from the most respected gunsmiths in London.”
