Major Dick Cooper Pistols
A pair of 40-Bore pistols owned by
accomplished big game hunter Major Dick Cooper, best friend of Baron Bror von
Blixen-Finecke and friend of Ernest Hemingway, are to be offered at Bonhams,
Knightsbridge as part of the Fine Antique Arms and Armour sale on
29th April 2010. The pistols, by John Manton & Son, are expected
to sell for £6,000 - 9,000.
When Hemingway went on a safari in 1934 it
was Cooper who played host to him at his house in Babati, which subsequently
featured in Hemingway’s book Green Hills of
Africa. Cooper also advised Hemingway on the guns he
should use on a hunting expedition in East Africa.
Major Cooper became friends with von Blixen
in 1927 when he was taken on a three-month safari with von Blixen’s company
Tanganyika Guides Limited. Years later von Blixen, who was married to
Out of Africa
author Karen Blixen (pen name Isak Dinesen), wrote to Cooper:
“After nearly ten years of hardships endured together and many bottles of
whiskey shared I dare to affirm that we are the best friends in the world.” von
Blixen left his rifles to Cooper on his death in
1946.
Having settled in the United States after
World War II, Cooper kept on his farm in Africa (near Lake Manyara, Tanzania),
and is said to have died in 1952 by drowning in a Cape buffalo hollow. Cooper
enjoyed the unusual distinction of having shot down a low-flying German aircraft
from the trenches in France in 1917 with his .450 Holland & Holland rifle,
normally used for shooting deer.
www.bonhams.com/arms
