The Nitro Express (NE) series of cartridges are used in large-bore hunting rifles , also known as elephant guns or express rifles , but later came to include smaller bore high velocity (for the time) British cartridges.
42-445: The term "Express" was coined by James Purdey in 1856, derived from the express train, to publicise the bullet velocity of his double rifles and became common parlance for many rifle cartridges. The addition of the word "Nitro" stemmed from the propellant used in these cartridges, cordite , which is composed of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine . The unveiling of the .450 Nitro Express by John Rigby & Company in 1898 heralded
84-464: A maker of not only fine shotguns , but also rifles and pistols as well. He and his son worked together to develop the first ‘Express’ rifle, introduced in 1851. The name remains in use today for high-velocity dangerous game cartridges , and the company continues to build double rifles using a reinforced side-by-side action. Since 1931, Purdey have also offered bolt-action rifles using Mauser actions. In 2018 it launched an updated model, utilising
126-427: A pair of spectacles"). One French bespoke shirtmaker was said to offer 400 shades of white, to satisfy vendor-customer relationships and desire for custom-made items. The New York Times devoted an article to bespoke cocktails, which they described as "something devised on the spot to a customer's precise and sometimes peculiar specifications". In another article, The New York Times described bespoke perfumes' taking
168-644: A particular specification (altered or tailored to the customs, tastes, or usage of an individual purchaser). In contemporary usage, bespoke has become a general marketing and branding concept implying exclusivity and limited runs. Bespoke is derived from the verb bespeak , meaning to "speak for something". The particular meaning of the verb form is first cited from 1583 and given in the Oxford English Dictionary : "to speak for, to arrange for, engage beforehand: to 'order' (goods)." The adjective "bespoken" means "ordered, commissioned, arranged for" and
210-468: A titanium chassis to allow the barrel to be free-floated, for greater accuracy. Due primarily to both King George V and Earl de Grey , Purdey have a long association with building back-action hammer ejector guns, most of which were built between 1895 and 1931. In 2004, the company reintroduced the Hammer Ejector to its range, using a sidelock action styled after its 1870s bar-in-wood guns. During
252-461: Is first cited from 1607. Originally, the adjective bespoke described tailor-made suits and shoes. According to Collins English Dictionary , the term was generally British English in 2008. American English more commonly uses the word custom instead, as in custom-made, custom car , or custom motorcycle . Nevertheless, bespoke has seen increased usage in American English during
294-481: The .450/400 Nitro Express , .500 Nitro Express and .577 Nitro Express , the latter two offering greater power than the .450s at the expense of greater rifle weight and recoil. In 1903 Jeffery & Co decided to outdo them all, creating the .600 Nitro Express , the most powerful sporting cartridge commercially available for over half a century. Whilst more powerful, the .500, .577 and .600 NE rifles were all too heavy for everyday use and remained specialist tools for
336-474: The .475 Nitro Express , Eley Brothers the .475 No 2 Nitro Express and Westley Richards the .476 Nitro Express , with the .470 NE becoming the most popular. James Purdey James Purdey & Sons , or simply Purdey , is a British gunmaker based in London, England specialising in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. Purdey holds Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to
378-519: The British and other European royal families. James Purdey was born in Whitechapel in 1784, and apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Thomas Keck Hutchinson. After completing his training, he worked for both Joseph Manton and Rev. Alexander Forsyth , before establishing his own company in London, England, in 1814, locating his business on Princes Street, now Wardour Street, near Leicester Square. In 1826,
420-502: The professional hunter , the .450s remained the most popular, but political events were to soon change this. In 1899 Rigby approached the engineers at Mauser to make a special Gewehr 98 bolt action to handle their .400/350 Nitro Express . The introduction of this rifle in 1900 was the birth of the magnum length bolt action, paving the way for such cartridges as the .375 H&H and .416 Rigby The term Nitro Express came to be applied to many of these rimless cartridges also. In
462-592: The "global communications boom" contributed to a "superset of English vocabulary"; another business writer explained that software companies in India were accustomed to adapting their language depending on the client, so that switching between bespoke software and custom software was the equivalent of switching between lift and elevator or queue and line . By 2008, the term was more often used to describe software, database and computer applications than suits, shirts or shoes. The BBC News Magazine wrote in 2008 that
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#1733094213348504-518: The "world of personalization to an entirely new level". A 2016 The New York Times article describes a satirical video about bespoke water and observed: "The B word has become an increasingly common branding lure employed by interior design companies, publishers, surgeons and pornographers. There are bespoke wines, bespoke software, bespoke vacations, bespoke barber shops, bespoke insurance plans, bespoke yoga, bespoke tattoos, even bespoke medical implants." A 2022 Saveur Magazine article described
546-485: The 1820s to breech loading hammerless ejectors by the 1890s. James the Younger was always at the forefront of advances in designing and building his guns and rifles and took out several patents for technical innovations over the years. These included the famous ‘Purdey Bolts’ locking system, and his concealed third bite. Both remain in production today, and may other gunmakers also adopted these designs as well. In 1878 James
588-426: The 19th century, most clothing was made to measure , or bespoke, whether made by professional tailors or dressmakers , or as often, at home. The same applied to many other types of goods. With the advent of industrialised ready to wear clothing, bespoke became largely restricted to the top end of the market, and is now normally considerably more expensive, at least in developed countries. At some point after that,
630-419: The 21st century. The word bespoke is most known for its "centuries-old relationship" with tailor-made suits , but the Oxford English Dictionary also ties the word to shoemaking in the mid-1800s. Although it is now used as an adjective, it was originally used as the past participle of bespeak . According to a spokesperson for Collins English Dictionary, it later came to mean to discuss , and then to
672-822: The West London Shooting Ground. Purdey had its own instructor, William Morgan, until his retirement in 1952, and thereafter they relied upon the Shooting Ground’s instructors. This arrangement continued until 2018, when Purdey purchased The Royal County of Berkshire Shooting Group. This was rebranded as Purdey at the Royal Berkshire in April 2022. 51°30′34.3″N 0°9′7.11″W / 51.509528°N 0.1519750°W / 51.509528; -0.1519750 Bespoke Bespoke ( / b i ˈ s p oʊ k / ) describes anything commissioned to
714-456: The Younger took two of his sons into the business, renaming it James Purdey & Sons. In 1882, the company moved from Oxford Street to new premises at 57-58 South Audley Street, on the corner with Mount Street, where the company remains today. James the Younger designed this building to accommodate his showroom and the factory, and later, the building provided living quarters for James' family. The City of Westminster unveiled a memorial plaque on
756-487: The adjective describing something that was discussed in advance , which is how it came to be associated with tailor-made apparel. The word was used as an adjective in A Narrative of the Life of Mrs Charlotte Charke , the 1755 autobiography of the actress Charlotte Charke , which refers to The Beaux' Stratagem as "a bespoke play". After that, the adjective was generally associated with men's tailor-made suits. Before about
798-467: The beginning of the modern big-game cartridge. Created from loading the already popular .450 Black Powder Express with cordite, the .450 NE was a fast and accurate cartridge capable of taking all African and Indian dangerous game. Early extraction problems with the .450 NE was the catalyst for Holland & Holland to develop the .500/450 Nitro Express and Eley Brothers the .450 No 2 Nitro Express both with very similar ballistics and performance to
840-405: The bespoke drive was anti-tradition, and about a desire to be different rather than identify collectively with others. Newsweek described the word as "monstrously distorted, abused and otherwise mangled into near meaninglessness", saying that anything can now be labeled "bespoke". The same Newsweek writer used the word as a verb to describe ordering a custom-made pair of glasses ("bespeaking
882-460: The company in 1970, and in 1994, upon deciding to retire, sold James Purdey & Sons Ltd to Compagnie Financière Richemont SA . Richard Purdey, the sixth generation of the founder's family, was brought into the company as Chairman in 1997, retiring in February 2007. Nigel Beaumont, the cousin of Richard Beaumont, took over as chairman until his retirement in 2014. He was followed by James Horne, who
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#1733094213348924-454: The company moved from Princes Street to Manton's former premises at 314-315 Oxford Street . Due to a conflict of numbering, the business used the address ‘314½ Oxford Street’ from 1827. The founder's son, James Purdey the Younger, took over the company's running from his father in 1858. James the Younger saw rapid change in the development and design of guns and rifles during his lifetime, essentially moving from muzzle loading flintlocks in
966-486: The company’s Hammersmith factory, which has been there since the late 1970s. The factory was fully rebuilt in 2014 to mark the company’s bicentenary, and was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 2015. While Purdey had always supplied shooting accessories, it did not offer a full range of clothing and accessories until 1974, when it was started by Richard Beaumont’s wife, Lavinia. This was originally run from 84 Mount Street, which
1008-513: The company’s side-by-side shotguns. These were displayed in the library of the Dolls House on the instructions of King George V . To mark his Silver Jubilee in 1935, Purdey built a pair of fully-working miniature hammer guns, based on the King’s favourite pair. These were 1:6-scale, and were presented in a silver-gilt case made by the King’s jewellers, Garrard . The first James Purdey was renowned as
1050-505: The coronation in 1954, both Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh awarded their warrants to the company. In May 2024 Purdey was granted a Royal Warrant by King Charles III , continuing over 150 years of service to the British Royal Family. Purdey have built two pairs of miniature guns for the British Royal Family. The first were commissioned for Queen Mary’s Dolls House in 1923, and were non-working 1:12-scale replicas of
1092-509: The firm in the 1920s. On 2 October 1925 James Purdey & Sons became a limited company, taking on investment from Jim Purdey’s in-laws, the Oliver family. Athol Purdey continued to run the business until 1929, when he was succeeded by Tom. In 1935, the Oliver family sold their shares to Sir Wyndham Portal and Major Godfrey Miller-Mundy, who in turn sold them to John Cobbold in November 1943. Sadly he
1134-483: The humble guacamole as "...bespoke: Diners could make their guac mild, medium, or hot". The UK Savile Row Bespoke Association has requirements for a garment to use the term bespoke , but those requirements are not followed by some manufacturers. In 2008, the British Advertising Standards Agency allowed a company, Sartoriani, to use bespoke to describe its suits, causing a controversy with
1176-641: The inter-war period, Purdey responded to demands from its American clients by introducing a single-barrelled trap gun (1923) and an over & under model (1925). The latter was based on a design by Edwinson Green, and despite significant refinement in the early 1930s only 27 were ever completed. In 1949, Purdey purchased another gunmaker, James Woodward & Sons, primarily for its ‘Under & Over’ design, which they had patented in 1913. A slightly-modified design remains in production today, alongside their ‘Sporter’ and ‘Trigger-Plate’ models, introduced in 2007 and 2018 respectively. All of these models are built in
1218-631: The late 1890s, the British Empire was facing a series of internal insurrections in India and the Sudan , and the .450 calibre .577/450 Martini–Henry rifle was the most widely distributed firearm in the hands of the anti-British forces. In 1907 the British Army banned all .450 calibre (as well as .303 and .577, two other military calibres) sporting rifles and ammunition from importation into India and East Africa,
1260-487: The majority of the European royal houses, as well as various Indian rulers. The company was granted its first Royal Warrant in 1868 by The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII . This was followed by Queen Victoria, who awarded her warrant in 1878. Purdey continued to hold warrants from their successors, as well as for other European Royal houses, including King Alfonso XIII of Spain and King Gustav V of Sweden . Following
1302-540: The optional single trigger mechanism, very little change has subsequently been made to the design of the side-by-side gun. In 1900, Athol Purdey took over from his father and ran the business through the prosperous Edwardian years, as well as supervising Purdey's manufacturing of sniper rifles and aerial gunnery sights for the War Office during World War I . Athol's sons, James and Tom, both of whom had served in France, joined
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1344-420: The original. Rigby soon solved the problems with the .450 NE, which quickly became the standard big-game cartridge used throughout Britain’s African colonies and India. With the success of the .450 NE, various people (it is not clear who) decided to follow Rigby’s example and load the old .450/400 Black Powder Express , .500 Black Powder Express and .577 Black Powder Express cartridges with cordite, creating
1386-455: The shop at 57-60 South Audley Street on 30 April 1992. Purdey introduced their self-opening hammerless gun in 1880. Designed by Frederick Beesley, a former Purdey craftsman, his hammerless self-opening mechanism uses one limb of a V-spring to operate the internal hammers and the other to operate the self-opening feature. This action was modified in 1888 through the incorporation of William Wem’s ejector design. Apart from occasional refinement and
1428-519: The term bespoke at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office , with half of those having been filed only in the previous 18 months. The Wall Street Journal said that the term had started to proliferate in corporations and among investors a few years before that. A writer in The Independent said that consumers no longer wanted to "keep up with the Joneses", but wanted to set themselves apart, saying that
1470-439: The two major destinations for .450 NE rifles and ammunition. Whilst the .450 cartridges could not be loaded into a Martini–Henry rifle, it was feared the bullets could be pulled and used to reload expended .577/.450 cartridges. What resulted was a rush by British rifle and ammunition makers to develop a substitute, Holland & Holland created the .500/465 Nitro Express , Joseph Lang the .470 Nitro Express , an unidentified firm
1512-552: The word bespoke came to be applied to more than tailoring, although it is unclear exactly when. Mark-Evan Blackman of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York told The Wall Street Journal in 2012 that the "bespoke proliferation may be tied to young Hollywood types becoming enamored with custom suits about a decade ago". The Wall Street Journal article said that "language purists" were not happy, while suit makers said
1554-403: The word had been "bastardized". In 1990, American writer William Safire questioned in a New York Times article what had become of "custom, a word fading from our fashion vocabulary in a blizzard of British usage". In a play on words, he wrote of the snob appeal of the word: "To be suitably trendy, bespeak to me of bespoke tailoring." Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine wrote that the word
1596-554: The word had increasingly been used to describe things other than websites, suits and shoes—like cars and furniture. Some examples of usage of the word are: Deborah Tannen , a Georgetown University linguistics professor, told The New York Times that "Americans associate it with the British upper class", adding that the word for Americans tapped into "our individualism. We want everything made specially for us. Even when it comes to salad bars." As of 2012 , there were 39 applications using
1638-543: Was "gaining in popularity", meaning "the opposite of off-the-rack". In its contemporary usage, it implies exclusivity, and is used as an aid in marketing and branding. A 2014 India Today article described bespoke as an emerging branding trend that marketers would need to embrace. A 2001 google search of "bespoke and software" produced 50,000 hits, many not in the UK or the US. The New York Times quoted an Indian tech director as saying
1680-491: Was accessed by its own door, and originally focussed on high-quality shooting clothing, gifts and accessories. The range has since expanded, and now includes luxury lifestyle pieces and luggage as well. In June 2024, Giles Deacon was announced as Purdey’s new Creative Director. Purdey have owned several shooting schools, including: After the sale of the Eastcote ground, the company came to an arrangement to lease space at
1722-672: Was killed when the Guard’s Chapel was hit by a V1 bomb on 18 June 1944. In 1946, Tom Purdey convinced Hugh Seely, 1st Baron Sherwood , to purchase the shares, eventually passing them to his nephew, the Hon. Richard Beaumont. Tom Purdey remained the Chairman of the company until his retirement in 1955 due to ill health, with day-to-day management of the company being handled by the Managing Director, Harry Lawrence. Richard Beaumont became Chairman of
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1764-455: Was succeeded in December 2019 by the current Chairman, Dan Jago. Richard Purdey’s daughter, Annika, the seventh generation of the founder’s family, currently sits on the company’s board as a non-executive director. As early as 1838, Queen Victoria is recorded as having bought a pair of Purdey pistols, followed by her husband, Prince Albert , in 1840. The company also supplied guns and rifles to
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