Sidelock Double Rifle
Where Purdey's rifle history becomes ceremonial, dangerous-game hardware.
Story & heritage
Purdey's Wikipedia history says James Purdey and his son helped develop the first Express rifle in 1851 and that the company still builds double rifles with a reinforced side-by-side action. That puts the double rifle squarely inside the house's historical centre rather than at its edge.
The model also carries ceremonial weight inside the brand. Purdey's own featured example was completed in 2014 to mark the bicentenary, underlining how naturally the double rifle functions as a flagship canvas for engraving, precious finish and commemorative craft.
Materials & craft
Purdey's official bicentenary example specifies a bolstered action with third grip and side-clips, gold-inlaid serial and safety markings, a spring-bladed front trigger, a cheek-pieced stock with leather-covered recoil pad and barrels regulated with fixed 50-yard and folding 100-yard sights. The silver finish and large scrollwork are paired with animal scenes on the lockplates.
Those details make the double rifle one of the most overtly elaborate objects in the Purdey universe, but the layout is still purposeful: the sighting system, trigger format and reinforced action all exist for actual rifle work rather than pure display.
How to choose & style
As an icon, the double rifle is less about understatement and more about theatre. If the side-by-side is Purdey at its quietest, this is Purdey at full ceremonial volume — still controlled, but intentionally grand.
It appeals to the part of the brand audience that wants historical continuity and visual richness in equal measure.
