doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Blake Gun Co of Boston - Pics

Here are some pics of the Blake Gun Company of Boston SxS I was given. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on it's history.

I haven't been able to find a double gun associated patent issued that date -- May 12, 1891. At least it is a date that U.S. Patents were issued. I thought at first glance that it looked like maybe a "trade" version of a Forehand, but on closer examination they were bolted by a notch in a deeper rib extension and this gun has underbolts.

It comes closer to matching the "Chicago Long Range Wonder" pictured in the 1902 Sears & Roebuck catlogue, but still is not exactly the same.

Jerry, I think your gun was made by Hopkins and Allen sometime after 1903 or so. They made guns for others to put their names on. The lock button that must be depressed to remove the barrels is the Forehand Arms design. Forehand Arms was taken over by Hopkins and Allen after Sullivan Forehand's death in 1898. The Hopkins and Allen production of the Forehand Arms design were rougher and less finished guns.

Researcher, I think that Torkelson had a patent issued on May 12, 1891, and he did have an association with Forehand and or Hopkins and Allen. Probably the patent mark is for an obscure part of the gun. Daryl

Torkelson Arms Co., "New Worchester" (1903 - 1908) Same gun I think under another name. Loving Doubles has what looks like the same gun for sale in his odds and ends of bargins needing a little help.

Now who the real makes was is perhaps another matter and I suspect that Hopkins and Allen is the most likely maker. But there has to have been dozens of small makers who came and went in a few years around the 1900's. I have seen several makes that were odd and they seem to have just popped and in a short time been out of bussiness. Didn't Frank Hollenback keep going into bicycle making or parts because it was a grownig feild? One month bikes and the next guns. Must have been a rough time to keep going.

There was a J.H. Blake of New York who produced a .30-40 krag rifle about this time.

There were at least 2 firearm related patents issued on May 12, 1891.
Torkelson 452126, related to hammer, linkage and spring.
Finch 452699, was trying to re-invent or at least patent the lever action.

Hopkins & Allen had a long run with Merwin, Hulbert & Co. Perhaps looking for new markets at this time.

Pete

The Finch patent was in the following weeks batch, May 19, 1891, and had nothing to do with a double gun. The Torkelson patent shows a trigger guard opening semi-hammerless single barrel, but may apply to some small part associated with this gun.

I can't see a crude double like this being associated with the same Blake operation that made the beautifully finished bolt action rifles with the detachable rotary magazines in both standard and proprietary cartridges.

KY Jon,

I just looked at the "New Worcester Gun" in American Small Arms by Edward S. Farrow, published by The Bradford Company, New York, 1904, and it is a dead ringer for the Blake gun in question here. Farrow states that the "New Worcester Gun" is marketted by William Read & Sons in Boston. However, I have their 1906 catalogue and don't find it shown there.

Here is the link to Ben's gun --

http://www.doublegun.com/torkelsonnw.html

Dave

The gun pictured in the link above is identical to the one I have.

I suspect that this gun was only made for one or two years. Panics and crashes of the period were frequent and many small manufacturing companies were underfunded. One bad run on the banks and they were gone. Sold to another or auctioned off to settle debts and perhaps never seen again.

What I think is funny is the high serial number of 11,247. Hard for me to accept that 11,000 plus of this model were ever made. But maybe that is not fair, as they were a lower priced gun and the market to "farmers" was much greater, in this price range, than for a gun that sold for several times this price. This makes the fourth one that I have seen, so they are not rare, just not a major part of the used American Klunker market like Crescents.