Guns International #: 103038177

Category - Perazzi Shotguns - Shotguns - Italian Double

Category
Perazzi Shotguns
Shotguns - Italian Double

Extremely rare Angelo Galeazzi engraved DHO sidelock

Description:
Perazzi rare DHO Extra Lusso, 12 ga. Angelo Galeazzi engraved, EXTREMELY RARE


Historical Significance: Founded in 1957 by Daniele Perazzi, the truly formative years of Armi Perazzi began in 1960 with a partnership between Daniele Perazzi and Ivo Fabbri. Perazzi and Fabbri had a vision of high-class shotguns of the finest quality and workmanship, traits exemplified in this early production DHO model. Unfortunately, their partnership was short lived and Fabbri departed to start his own firearms company. The DHO model was Perazzi's top of the line sidelock model and was handmade to the customer's specifications.

Description:
Perazzi DHO Extra Lusso, a handmade sidelock ejector side-by-side double-barrel shotgun. Since the DHO’s were always bespoke guns, made to order, there are no two alike. Though rare, when you do see one advertised over the last 50 years, the owner has a different variation on its model name, such as Extra Lusso, Imperiale Lusso, Gran Premio, but no matter what name, it does not get any higher in grade than this one with its Grade IV wood, elaborate and meticulous hand-checkering and full-coverage deep-cut engraving by the superstar Italian master engraver, Angelo Galeazzi, signed by him near the trigger guard. This is the top of the line, the most “lusso” of any. Angelo Galeazzi, is one of the superstar engravers listed in the book The Italian Gun by Steve Smith and Lauri Morrow.

Built with 28” chopperlump barrels, 2 3/4"  chambers, choked three stars and measure .020 (right) and 2 stars and measure.030 (left) featuring a hand-filed matted concave rib and single steel  bead front sight. Date code is XXV (1969) is stamped on the barrels

The coin-finished gray receiver features handmade Holland and Holland style seven-pin sidelocks. The frame is inscribed “MAP” in a gold background.  Other features include automatic  ejectors, a single non-selective trigger, and tang mounted manual thumb safety.

The receiver and side plates have full coverage engraving with fine floral and vine engraving and waterfowl scenes The trigger guard, break level, safety, and even the individual lock screws are similarly engraved by Angelo Galeazzi.

The pistol-grip stock and semi-beavertail forearm are made of high-grade Circassian walnut, with attractive rich color showing very desirable grain and mineral lines, chosen by  Daniele  personally in Turkey. The forearm face is set with a nice diamond in a field of point pattern checkering, bringing the points together to give it wrap-around status. Add to that the incredible sculpted, engraved, and inlaid Anson push rod style catch.

Measurements: Bores are stamped 18.4 and measure .724, drop at comb 1 1/2”, drop at heel 2”, and length of pull 14 3/8” to hand-checkered butt. Weight is 6 lbs. 14 oz. 

Condition: Excellent overall. 98% original blue finish remains with sharp markings. There are a few small marks on the left barrel. The stock and forearm appear nearly new and the checkering diamonds are still sharp to the touch. Mechanically excellent, ejectors are in time. Just look at the  photos of the sidelock removed -- no oil..., just like when it was built.

In September, 2017, Rock Island featured a DHO engraved by Galeazzi with this byline:

“DHO's engraved by Angelo Galeazzi in this condition
    don't come up for sale very often.” 
Description: 
Incredibly Rare and Early Engraved Armi Perazzi DHO Double Barrel Side Lock Shotgun with Case
Location: Rock Island, IL
Date: September 10, 2017
Estimated Price: $40,000 - $70,000
The final acceptedis undisclosed, but an agent, when interviewed, said he could say, “It  surpassed the minimum and then some.”

This is an excellent opportunity to own one of the most sought-after and rarest Perazzi shotguns made by two of the biggest names in Italian gunmaking.

Price: $35,000.00

.
About the maker:
Today, Armi Perazzi is located in Botticino, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, in a 20,000 square-meter production plant, in addition to Perazzi USA in Southern California. The history of the maker is a history of Daniele Perazzi. At 16 he began working at a large gunmaker in Val Trompia proving his talent and patenting his first model, the first of a long series of guns that bears his name. In 1957 at the age of 25, Daniele Perazzi founded Armi Perazzi, his own factory where he worked every day for many years, eventually joined by his son Mauro and his daughter Roberta, until his death in 2012.
In the book, The Italian Gun, the authors toured Perazzi with Daniele and gave a detailed account (pp. 149-150) of this perfect balance of traditional gunsmithing, high technology and the selection of excellent raw materials, witnessing dozens of workers in orderly rows, CAD units, CAM centers, NC machines, CNC machines, robots, every state-of-the art machine developed for modern gunsmithing, and the traditional tools and craftsmen as well. They saw Turkish walnut blanks that Perazzi personally selected traveling four times a year to Turkey and a storage facility in the rear of the plant housing an inventory of thousands of these blanks.
From the beginning Perazzi shooters achieved considerable success and the name and reputation of Perazzi became widely known. For 50 years Perazzi has built prestigious game and competition guns that are a fusion between traditional gunsmithing, high technology and the selection of excellent raw materials. Perfect balance and handling coupled with Perazzi’s innovations that have been made during this time have resulted in a gun suitable for every discipline and made the company a world leader in clay shooting.

About the engraver:  Angelo Galeazzi (1931- 2012)  born in Castegnato, Italy. Galeazzi was a founder of the bulino style, he achieved his work solely with a burin.  He was able to get a depth of perspective and a range of motion in his subject matter that few can match in metal.

According to the book, The Italian Gun, by Smith and Morrow, “Galeazzi had the distinction of being the most influential of all Italian firearms engravers. Few engravers had mastered the basic concepts of fine art better than Galeazzi. He was one of the founders of the bulino style. Galeazzi’s professional commitment to engraving began with Perazzi and subsequently Abbiatico & Salvinelli. Soon his work embellished guns by Ivo Fabbri, Beretta, Franchi, Luciano Bosis, and in the course of his 50-odd year career, almost every other fine gunmaker in Italy.
           
Galeazzi was a master of detail. He preferred English-style scroll to frame his scenes and to embellish the fences, screwheads, and smaller areas of the action that do not allow enough space to accommodate figures or scenes. Among his favorite compositions were waterfowl scenes, a subject he felt lends itself to the poetry of his art – the luminescence of water and dawn’s diffused light leant something to his obsession with chiaroscuro and the contrast between natural elements.Since line is the essence of drawing, it is fascinating to note how Galeazzi used the direction of his stroke to create reeds blowing in the wind, the wind across the water, clouds skirting the sky, and waterfowl landing upon the water giving motion through line. Composition is the alignment and placement of every element of a design, and Galeazzi made sure his compositions were meticulously planned.

For his scenes, he also mastered perspective, establishing the horizon and from that the placement and scale of objects in the foreground and background (more akin to mathematics than the art), the gradation  and scale of shadow  and light as it affects the objects. Galeazzi had an obvious passion for drawing that shines through his work. He has entrusted an entire generation of engravers with a legacy that compares with none other.

Any questions- feel free to contact me.
 

Price: $35,000.00

Shotgun Gauge: 12 Gauge