Some gentlemanly possessions are near essential. Others border on extraneous. It really depends on your interests and tendencies. Some might consider a tennis racquet or a fishing rod to be absolute staples. Some might live their whole life without holding either and still be suitable gentlemen.
Still, a gentleman should be prepared for anything. He might only use a pair of needle nose pliers once in his lifetime, but it’s still a good idea to keep them in his tool box.
Nowadays it’s unlikely that a gentleman would need to challenge someone to a duel. One way or another we’ve phased that aspect out of civilized life. But you never know. Perhaps someday it will come back into fashion. Maybe it will combine aspects of paint ball and American Gladiators. Two chaps reach and impasse in an argument and decide to settle it by donning protective eye wear, walking ten paces, turning and shooting tennis-ball-sized paint pellets at each other. Just hard enough to leave a nasty welt and ruin a suit.
Until we get to that point you can probably get away with filling the space on your shelf reserved for dueling pistols with a croquet set, falconry equipment or a work-in-progress ship in a bottle. It really depends on what tickles your fancy. You have to admit, though, that it would be pretty clutch if an associate of your’s challenges another to a duel and proceeds to ask “Does anyone have a set of matched pistols?”. and you come out with “As a matter of fact....”
In the meantime, I’m gonna go add Barry Lyndon to my Netflix que.
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