Pictures of everything on the barrel flats would be helpful here. It sounds as if you are describing a Birmingham proof mark. It is very likely that Whitney is not the maker, but a marketer of some one else's Birmingham production. I've never heard of at percussion gun that wasn't Twist construction.
(Percussion SxS guns are a lot of fun.)
That would be, "an original percussion gun."
Nice looking gun, I'm having trouble with the proofs, here's what I found:
Crown over V is a London black powder proof mark
Crown over R is a London black powder reproof mark
19.4 would be a Belgium bore size between 10 and 11 gauge
Unknown mark looks Belgium
Are the inside of the barrels any good, I usuall drop a really thin flashlight (size AAA battery) down the barrel to check it out. If you do that let it slide down at an angle so as not to break the flashlight. Have you been shooting it or are you planning to? They're fun to shoot and very satisfying to hunt with.
Steve
Rib is marked "Time Laminated Steel Twist" Bores measure .775" at the muzzle which = 10 ga., right?. Bores are dark with some light surface corrosion/pitting. Running a cleaning patch down the bores comes out light brown - rust color.
Check out
http://doublegunshop.com/info.htm on this site, as it's titled, it has all sorts of useful information. Your not getting much action on this post. If you can get better pictures of the proofs I'll lookup what I can find. That unknown proof looks very familiar, I'm thinking Belgium, but then apparently it has British proofs too. It may be the barels were sourced from Belgium. "Time Laminated Steel Twist" is just their marketing guys stating the obvious. BTW measure both barrels, it's quite common to have two different gauge barrels on the same gun.
Steve
The 'unknown' mark is the Belgian Provisional Proof and the other crown overs are inspector's marks. It's likely 'Fine', not 'Time' and as said probably a tradename gun. There are Whitney Hardwares in the NE
Look here
http://www.phoenixinvestmentarms.com/archives/Proofmarks.pdfI can not see the proof marks well but compare your rams horns to the French provisional proof. Paris House
EDIT! Sorry Drew, I did not see your post and defer to your opinion
Mike
Drew is spot on with the 'unknown' mark; that is the Belgian Liege Proof House Provisional mark. The Crown over 'R' mark is the Belgian rifled arms mark. If it no longer has any form of rifleing then it did once. Lagopus.....
The rib marking does appear to be an F for Fine not a T for Time. What threw me was that the n looks like an m.
Looks like the proof mark is an EL or Leige proof mark as you suspected.
I take it that since the barrels are Belgian that the gun was not made by Whitney?
Bill
I have had a light down the bores and there is no evidence of there ever being any rifling? Did they rifle shotgun bores? Bill
I have another percussion double barrel made by D. Leonard & Son which appears to have steel barrels not twist or laminated? Bill
The rib marking does appear to be an F for Fine not a T for Time. What threw me was that the n looks like an m.
Looks like the proof mark is an EL or Leige proof mark as you suspected.
I take it that since the barrels are Belgian that the gun was not made by Whitney?
Bill
Hi Bill,
Can't really tell much more than what you have. I doubt that the gun was rifled and still feel maybe it was reproofed in England, however if it was I think it should have barrel dimensions marked in gauge and not metric like Belgium did. I figure you're trying to tie it to the cotton gin Whitneys here in the US. It may have been a cape gun at one time with one barrel rifled for ball and the other smooth. Later it was rebored as a shotgun. Are there any indications along the ribs of a former gunsight?
Also try taking off the locks and look for any markings on the backside of the locks that could give you a clue to the guns origin. Though the barrels may be from Belgium, the rest of the gun may have been made in the US, hence the lack of proof marks.
Steve
