I think Rocketman has nailed it. Fashion ultimately affected resale value to the point where you had to build to certain "expectations" after a certain point in time. Most of the great hammerguns were built prior to this mild aberration. Purdey leapt to the forefront of gun design and "fashion" when they bought and begain to build on Beasley's first self-opener design in 1883 and everybody else was playing catch-up after that. Very good designs (even ones made by highly competent people) simply fell by the wayside after just a few years. Lancaster's "Wristbreaker" is a classic example of this concept in action. It was Beasley's second self-opening design, only following his first by a few years, and yet when compared side-by-side with his first, it seems so-antiquated in appearance. Lancaster continued to build on that design thu the early 20th Century, losing market-share all the time to the more fashionable-looking bar-action guns.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 02/15/14 04:04 PM.
