After a good two-hour Frontier Partisan Biathlon, and a couple hours of winterizing the lawns, all I was good for Wednesday evening was sprawling out on the couch to peruse the latest edition of Sporting Classics (hat tip to Rick Schwertfeger).
I sat right up when I hit the image of a lovely butterknife bolt handle on a Mannlicher rifle in a full-page advert from Rock Island Auction. And my attention was sharpened further when I realized what I was looking at: A rifle wielded by the legendary safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton. You know him — Karen Blixen’s lover, portrayed by Robert Redford in the film Out of Africa.
Of course I hared off down this sidetrail onto the Rock Island Auction site to get the details:
This rifle comes from the time of great European safari hunters in Africa, its historic nature cannot be overstated. Once owned by famous British hunter and adventurer Denys Finch Hatton, this rifle surely saw much use taking all types of game in Kenya throughout the 1920s. Hatton was a celebrity in his day and was made even more famous by the 1937 book (and subsequent 1985 film) “Out of Africa” written by his once lover Baroness Karen Blixen under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Hatton was amongst the best hunters and guides of his day and was even the guide to the then Prince of Wales (later H.R.M., Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor) with his long time friend (and ex-husband to his lover) Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke.
The rifle is accompanied by letters from J. H. Esmeyer of South Africa attesting to the history of ownership, stating that it was left by Hatton to his Niece, Lady Diana Tiarks whom in turn presented the rifle to him when her and her husband returned to England around 1954. It appears, however, that the rifle had a different original owner as the inscription shield in the stock shows a coronet with seven pearls over an “M.”
The original owner cannot be confirmed without a doubt, but the most likely candidate is Sir Charles Markham, 2nd Baronet of Arusha, East Africa, who was a close friend and hunting companion of Hatton and likely presented the rifle to him upon leaving Kenya for London.
Hatton would have proceeded to use this fine rifle until his untimely death in an aviation accident in 1931, aged only 44…
Out of Africa is a great movie, and it inspired me to read everything I could get my hands on about the era in East Africa, which would be at the top of my list of places to land if I could walk through a standing stone and fall through time. As I’ve mentioned here before though, it painted Bror Blixen in a much more sinister light than the man deserved. And he was a better hunter than his friend Finch Hatton. Nevertheless, getting to ogle a rifle wielded by the legendary Finch Hatton is pretty cool. You can own it for an estimated $15,000 to $25,000.
Rick Schwertfeger says
I agree re: the image of Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke portrayed in “Out of Africa.” Partially spurred on by your previous writing about him, in August I read his book, “African Hunter.” It was published in Swedish in 1937, then translated into English in 1938. The used copy I own is one of the books in “Peter Capstick’s Library,” a series of African hunting-related books from the personal library of the late African big game hunter, guide, and writer Peter Capstick, an American. It’s a fine, enjoyable, pleasant read, that to some degree fills in the story of him, Karen Blixen, and Denys Hatton. It’s worth several winter evenings reading.
J.F. Bell says
Somewhere in the bowels of the safe waits a barreled action for a 6.5 Mannlicher. I’d bought it when I worked at Remington, hoping to work some trades with other parts of the shop. Sadly, our enlightened management had other ideas and put the company in the ground before I got the chance. It’s still there, near the back of a list of projects crippled by a lack of time, talent, tooling, and treasure. One of these days. Maybe after the Lee-Speed.
Admittedly, I bought mine mostly on account of Hemingway… I suppose there are worse things to take away from one’s reading.
JimC says
Reading has got me into all kinds of beautiful trouble. That and music accounts for almost all of it, in fact, because my taste for liquor and women were inextricably tied to them. Heh.
Paul McNamee says
That is a fine-crafted tool.
Nevertheless, getting to ogle a rifle wielded by the legendary Finch Hatton is pretty cool. You can own it for an estimated $15,000 to $25,000.
Ah, the plews I would plunk down on so many dream acquisitions were I ever to hit the lottery.
JimC says
Right?
Roy Lacey (AK as Tom Horn) says
Whilst I am in no position to pass ‘comment’ on any of your “articles”, I thoroughly enjoy them, I use my imagination to “get me into them?”. Thank you.
JimC says
And thank you.