James Purdey the Younger was born in 1828 at the building on Oxford Street that served as both the company headquarters and the family home. He served an apprenticeship under his father from 1843 to 1850. The elder James was 73 years of age when he turned the business over to his son at the beginning of 1858; he died five years later. James the Younger assumed control of the company at age 29. In 1860 he was admitted to the Freedom of the Gunmakers’ Company. In his early years of leadership he worked assiduously to reduce the debt his father had accumulated and put the company on a firmer financial footing.
Purdey took charge at a time of another key transition in gun design, the change from muzzle-loading weapons, which were loaded at the open end at the front of the barrel, to breech-loading guns, which were loaded at the rear of the barrel (the breech). Purdey has been credited, however, with the development of the well-known Express rifle, a muzzle-loader that originated in the early 1850s. Its name had derived from its likeness to an express train; its shot was fast, powerful, and straight. By 1870, however, breech-loaders had largely supplanted muzzle-loaders at the Purdey company. In 1868, meanwhile, the firm was granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment from the Prince of Wales. This was followed ten years later by the granting of a Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria. Each reigning British monarch thereafter did likewise.
During his period of helmsmanship, Purdey was at the forefront of advances in gun design, taking out several important patents in the process. None, however, was more important than his 1863 patent for the Purdey bolt, which in conjunction with the top lever patented in 1865 by gunmaker William Middleditch Scott created a bolt action mechanism for opening and closing breech-loading guns that remained the standard right into the 21st century. This invention enabled a sportsman to easily open his gun using his thumb on the top lever without having to change his grip on the gun’s stock. It also enabled the gun to be easily snapped shut. After entering into a licensing arrangement with Scott’s firm, Purdey was able to license what was often called either the Purdey lever or Purdey action to a large number of rival gunmakers, thereby garnering substantial revenue for his firm.
In the late 1870s the Purdey company departed from its normal standards of gunmaking by offering for sale different grades of guns, from best grade A to the cheapest grade E, with prices ranging from £58 down to £20. Only the grade A guns were entirely built by the company and conformed to the usual high standards. Other grades were either entirely or partially produced by other gunmakers. This practice pushed the company’s sales up to around 350 guns a year by the mid-1880s, and the extra sales translated into healthy profits. Sales of the lower grades began tailing off in the 1890s, however, and the firm eventually concluded that the practice of using multiple grades was tarnishing its well-earned reputation for excellence. Following World War I, the company returned to making only top-grade guns and rifles.