In an interview included in Titan Books’ “Star Wars: Icons of the Galaxy” (edited by Jonathan Wilkins), Christian associated the story of stumbling upon the lightsaber within the London photographic store Brunnings. Based on Christian:
“I requested David French, the supervisor of the store, if that they had any outdated or broken gear I might purchase for a film I used to be engaged on. He pointed me to bins of apparatus that had clearly lain untouched for years. I began rummaging by means of them and located outdated lenses and rangefinders, pulling out something I believed is perhaps helpful. I then found one outdated field below the others, lined in mud, that had clearly not been opened in years.”
That field contained what Christian described as “a number of silver, tube-like objects with purple buttons set into the handles.” He’d discovered the products. Per Christian:
“I pulled one out, amazed. They really appeared like Ralph McQuarrie’s work of the lightsaber. In some way I used to be for the time being of discovering the Holy Grail. Even the purple firing button appeared completely designed for a lightsaber deal with. I held one in my hand; it was the proper weight and dimension. I had discovered the treasure that was eluding me, and I knew precisely what to do with it as I headed straight again to Elstree Studios.”