"From a European perspective, of course, the LC Smith is the preeminent American classic because of its sidelock mechanism"
Someone named Greener thought side-locks to be an anachronism once the cocks went inside in the 1870s...and the most recent reincarnation of the "Elsie" Smith is not a side-lock. I wonder why?
The on-going debate of side-lock versus box-lock is a recent invention. Greener's comment favored his new hammerless box-lock in the context a modernization of the action that was less costly to make. Back when he made his commercial pronouncement ca. late-1870s, the sporting pulp weeklies were largely written by subscribers--sort of like today's Internet websites like this one.
I have mined the old newspapers for info to pass along in my books and articles, more than anyone can imagine, plus I have a complete library of shotguns and shooting books pre-WWI. What I find interesting is that the contemporary print media of the 1870s through, say, 1910, is largely devoid of any discussion of box-lock versus side-lock, save Greener's self-serving single pronouncement that went to the simplified manufacturing procedure rather than any "better mouse-trap" analysis. The pulp weeklies especially were a bubbling cauldron of strong opinions by gun cranks, stated and rebutted endlessly, and I never found anything on the topic worth quoting from when the guns were cutting-edge in current production.
Side-locks today are a matter of taste, fashion, and opinion. Just how the "European perspective" imputes "preeminence" to the L. C. Smith is a matter of opinion. But it is a fact easily verifiable by clicking over to the Roy Eckrose Auction Summary on this very website: I used his 2004 analysis in my new book with a chart at p.337.
There were 104 Parkers of all grades and condition according to Eckrose, which averaged $4,382 (16 Trojans averaged $1,333). The 101 L. C. Smiths of all grades and condition averaged $1,274, which was less than Parker's lowest-grade "knockabout" Trojan.
The Parker price range was $250 to $31,625; the L. C. Smiths ranged from $172 to $18,400. Most telling was that 54% of the Parkers were above $2,000, while only 15% of the L. C. Smiths exceeded what I consider to be the entry level for a better kind of SxS shotgun.
This is not to say that one or another old-time shotgun is best by any objective standard, but I think the prices indicate a consensus that mitigates against claims of "preeminence" viewed through the lens of "European perspective." There's a neat picture in the "Box-locks versus Side-locks" chapter 32 (at p. 259) of my new book with this caption:
"L. C. Smith display where the "true believers" gathered at Madison Square Garden for the 1895 Sporting Goods Show. If contemporary pulp-weekly sportsmen's newspapers and shotgun-related books are any indication, these fellows were not discussing box-locks versus side-locks."
In other words, there is no silver bullet to define one "Best" gun from any one of the prominent makers. Overall there is a pecking order of
average prices...and Lake Erie
averages four feet deep; don't drown in the averages.
And here's a surprise: EDM just acquired a ca. 1904 Phila. Fox "A" s/n 262; wonder why? Well, mostly to help out a senior citizen, but also it's such a dead ringer for a Parker VH that it will produce some double-takes when I put it on my table at the Vintage Cup this September.
