Yes Keith, agreed, after conferring with RR and reading your posts it now seems clear it's a pre-47, but I think chances are he owned it and rapidly "upgraded" (as it would have been seen then)to a newer 00028- as you say, he wasn't forthcoming- a combination of not really interested/couldn't recall, combined with his natural perversity and perhaps desire to create a bit of mystique. Maybe we'll have more luck with the Francis/Bailey 12, I'm still doggedly sticking with the former... just to make it interesting we'll have a shilling on the side, eh, in the immortal word's of Benny Hill in his great classic "Ernie" (the fastest milkman in the west).