Dr. Bill, Im in the same boat as Slate sort of. Unfortunately I dont know much about the maker, but I did own a very well made charles osborne back action hammer gun with rebouding hammers, straight grip stock, 30" steel tubes(forget chamber length)(forget the chokes). Anyways, it had nice border engraving and no case colors left. I wanted to refinish the entire gun, but figured I would never get around to it so I sold it to a friend of mine. Although I have never seen a "best" gun from Osborne, I have seen some nice boxlocks like the one ChiefShotguns talks about. There is one on gunsamerica right now for a little over a grand. Best wishes,
Channing
http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976771133.htm
