doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com w.j jeffery's year of manufacture??

Hey all, so i recently inherited my grandfathers shotgun and was curious about its year of manufacture. Its a w.j jeffery double barrel shotgun, wasnt sure how to determine it myself so took a pic of the flats.
Thanks in advance

p.s if someone could tell me how its determined id appreciate it

These folks may be of assistance

http://www.jroberts-gunmakers.co.uk/about.htm

If I read the Serial # as 35526 that would give a manufacture date of 1929 to 1931.
The Proof Marks are as the 1925 rules so that would tie in

yes that is the correct serial number. thank you for the info 300846!!
could i get a brief idea on how to read the rest of the engraving? kind of interested in learning to do so.

300846 - I am confused. I have Jeffery No. 25390, and a copy of the records showing a date of Dec. 1931. Are serial numbers not consecutive? Thanks.

Also, the current address I have for the records is W.J. Jeffery & Co. Gun and Rifle Makers, 1426 Rembrandt Rd, Boulder, Colorado, 80302.

If that does not work, I have an alternate contact.

Quoting directly from my 'best' reference on these records (Nigel Brown's British Gunmakers - Vol.1 London) :-
"W.J. Jeffrey's system of gun numbers was dealt with by allocating numbers in blocks. This means that one block might cover a much larger span of years than another or may be previous in date. I have, therefore, recorded the serial numbers in numerical sequence by their blocks together with the span of years covered by that block. For detailed reference it will be necessary to apply to J. Roberts & Son (Gunmakers) Ltd, who own the Jeffery name and holds the original record books."
This means, for example, that gun numbers 25291 thru 25600 cover the years 1929 thru 1939. Making this even more of a puzzle numbers 24982 thru 25282 were used 1913-1915 and 25601 thru 25900 were used 1917-1922. A very confusing system, to me anyway, but at the time it was devised doubtless someone had it all worked out. Fortunately, as LGF has discovered, Roberts do have more detailed records available.

The original poster's gun with # 35526, falls within the span 35441 - 35940 which Brown gives as 1929 to 1931.

As regards Proof Marks, there are many publications in print and on the net that reference English & foreign marks.
The booklet produced by Birmingham & London Proof Houses is entitled "Notes on the proof of shotguns and other small arms". The copy I have dates from 1976 and is not particularly informative but does give some foreign marks in addition to the English ones. The best and most comprehensive reference I have is again in Nigel Brown's 3 volume set on British gunmakers. Brown only covers English marks but there are various references on line, some being more accurate than others.
The original poster's gun shows Birmingham proof marks and the detail of the marks places the gun in the period 1925 -1954. The main change from previous marks (1904 rules) was the addition of chamber length.
Will attempt to post a quick guide to Proof Marks later.

Welcome to the site, Durrani. Your Grandfather has/had good taste.

Stick around and join the fun.

Some of the Jeffery numbers may relate to the actual Maker's records as well just to confuse things. Jeffery never made a gun but sourced them from the trade. Any extra photos may give a clue to the Maker. I was looking at a nice Jeffery boxlock recently made by Daniel Leonard of Birmingham. Lagopus.....

Thanks for the clarification 300846 - sounds as if WJJ did this to confuse us decades later!

Where would somone search for Daniel Leonard records? I have an A, Hollis that was made by him. I was told that it's circa 1906.