Italians understand style. The country’s designers incorporate art and elegance into everything from Ferraris to pizza—and the same goes for guns. If you built shotguns that looked worthy of royalty with incredbily intricate mechanical designs inside, you would want to show off your handiwork, wouldn’t you?
Enter the Bertuzzi brothers, Elio and Remigio of F. LLi Bertuzzi shotguns. The two spent their mortal years as both the brains and brawn of their firearm company, doing all the work themselves with no outside employees. When they retired in 1979 they had no descendants who were interested in running the business, so the Bertuzzi design and craftsmanship ended with the brothers. No new Bertuzzis will ever be produced.
One of the company’s finest creations was based on the Boss & Co. shotguns of London. Bertuzzi’s Zeus, as it was called, came in two designs: the normal sidelock design and the ‘Ali di Gabbiano.’ The latter, known as the Gullwing design, features hinged doors on each side of the action that enable the fortunate few to look in and observe the polished mechanism. Only twelve Gullwings are thought to exist.
The story reads like a firearm-retelling of The Lord of the Rings. Eight of the twelve were acquired by Griffin & Howe, two of which have been sold. Two are believed to have been kept by the two brothers, and the rest remain hidden from the world. Perhaps they will join their siblings in the public light one day, but for now Griffin & Howe has allowed us to look inside the works of art through the photos below.
Photos courtesy of Griffin & Howe.
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— Taylor J. Pardue