doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Who could this be?

Recently received this pic of several letters on a 1900 Smith hammer gun Twist barrel which could well represent the tube maker or importer. We know 'WR' is William Read and Sons, Boston and the '0' is the grade mark.



So far we've identified the following Belgian maker's marks on damascus barrels used by American gun makers:
L.C. Smith: Bauduin Doyen & Jean-Baptiste Delcour-Dupont
Colt Firearms: Plunger-Riga & Heuse-Riga Fils
Baker: Charles Spirlet, Joseph Joris & Arthur-Delvaux-Heuse
Lefever: Arthur-Delvaux-Heuse & George Laloux
Fox: Jean-Baptiste Delcour-Dupont
Ithaca (Flues): Heuse-Riga Fils
A.J. Aubrey/Meriden Fire Arms Co.: Jean-Baptiste Delcour-Dupont/Canons Delcour, Henri Pieper, Heuse-Riga Fils, and Lucient Clement
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/18490292

So close...yet so far

Drew, are you thinking that William Read and Sons imported barrel blanks and then sold them to Hunter Arms ? That's new to me. The WR was obviously poorly stamped or on the blanks before finishing. What is the writing to the left of the O and WR ?

Daryl the writing to the left is what Drew is asking the question about. I just picked up a 1901 Smith O grade hammer gun the other day with the W.R. stamped in the barrels but there is also another stamp i will see if I can decifer it after a good cleaning, it may help, it may not...

87, I was a bit confused. I am not sure we "know" that WR is for William Read and Sons, though. Do you know why we are sure of that ? Was there a factory letter noting the gun was shipped to William Read ?

Good point Daryl. Scroll down to the bottom of both these albums for pics of 'WR', 'BD', 'EH', and a bunch of marks on steel barrels, including the as yet unkown 'W&R'



The 'WR' is an assumption on my part, which we may be able to confirm now that Dr Jim has the Hunter Arms records
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17116222
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/19686599

Northup87 is correct that the ?5 letters to the left of the 'WR' are my question, and a mark not previously identified on Smith barrels.

Drew: The bottom barrel stamp reads "W&R" not "WR" This, to me, would tend to rule out William Read.

Just My Humble Opinion.....George

Sorry for being murky gentleman, but I grew up on the Muddy Missouri River.
We have found 'WR' which I assume is William Read.
We have found 'W&R' which is NOT William Read and does not fit any known Hunter Arms distributor.

OT and a long shot, but I have been looking for information on W. B. Read & Co. for my other hobby, antique fireworks, for a long time. This company put out what is probably the first depiction of a Boy Scout on an imported item, in this case Chinese firecrackers. I have no clue as to where this company was located.
Anyone with any information should email me at halka@hughes.net to avoid more OT posts in this wonderful thread.