Charles Osborne was a large and well known firm established in Birmingham in 1838. The firms earliest address was 1 Lichfield Street moving to Whittall Street in 1854. They went out of business just after World War Two. They were a very large and well known firm offering a large range of guns they manufactured, more likely bought in the white from the trade and finished in house. They also had premises in London, Edinburg and at Blythswood in Glasgow. Their catalogues, which were numerous, offered a wide range of rook and rabbit rifles an extensive range of double rifles that were popular in South Africa and India. Virtually nothing is known of the man named Charles Osborne, where the firm by that name was run by Ellis and Wilkinson, Charles Osborne Ellis was a grandson of Charles Osborne and William Wilkinson apprenticed under Charles Osborne, but it appears that the founder only had a brief relationship with the firm. There is a patent Number 292 of 1877 registered under the name Charles Osborne Ellis and Edward William Wilkinson who were TRADING under the name Charles Osborne & Co. in Birmingham in 1877.
From The British Shotgun, vol. 2, written by I.M. Crudgington and D.J. Baker.
Available where all great books are sold!!!
My opinion, buy the one that fits you the best, all three of those makers 'built' great guns.
