doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Blake Gun Company?

A buddy just gave me an old damascus SxS made by the "Blake Gun Co Boston", which it has stamped on both sides of the action. I can find no information on this company in my books or on the intraweb.

There are two geese, one per side, stamped just below the Blake stamp. The serial number on the flats doesn't match that of the receiver but it's not off by much. The SN on the fore end/flats is 11247 - forget what the receiver is but it's 11xxx something or other. There is a patent applied for stamp on the receiver which lists a date in '91 - no doubt that's 1891. The receiver has a very odd sort of dull coppery patina to it - not like blueing and not like the silvery raw metallic color when the blueing has worn off. The checkering is basic, and of the flat English style. The butt stock has a pronounced angle forward from the bottom to the top at the butt plate. Double triggers, tang safety.

Any of you good folks know anything about Blake Gun Co?

I don't remember where the Blake Rifle was made. Anyone know?

Blake isn't listed on the gaggle of trade names applied to H&D Folsom's Crescent double barrels.

John H. Blake of New York, NY, was granted Patent No. 608023 on July 26, 1898, for a rotary detachable magazine bolt action rifle. In his 1904 book, Edward S. Farrow devotes three pages to the Blake rifles, carbines, and their cartridges, but doesn't say where they are made. An article in the January 1953 American Rifleman says that in addition to making their bolt action rifle, that Blake handled imported double rifles, but again doesn't give their location!?!