I would say "Best" guns are considered to be London made guns.
Boss, Purdey, Woodward and Holland are considered all Best guns.
Occasional you will see some boxlocks described as Best quality and indeed they look fantastic. Purdey and Holland made lower quality grade guns as well but Boss and Woodward never did.
But it all comes back to the fantastic four I have mentioned.
One would say that it has to be stocked to the fences and without any barrel lumps protruding through the bottom of the receiver to qualify as Best.
But Boss made guns not stocked to the fences and they were considered a Best gun.
PAL, was a time when I shared your statements above. I have found what I consider a better working definition. As some have stated above, "best" must be viewed from a time perspective. There was never a formal definition of "best," but master gunmakers and some of their clients knew who the most accomplished workers (both company in-workers and independent out-workers) were and what they could produce if paid appropriately. So, a candidate "best gun" must be filtered through what (designs, material, craftsmanship, fashion/vogue, etc.) was available when it was made. It should be noted that some of the usual definition applies to a style appropriately called the "London best gun." For example, Boss and Woodward continued to produce flatback SLE's long after "London best" called for STTF. Said guns are most certainly "best." The catch is that there were a lot of "sub-best" SLE's made on the flat-back frame. So, it becomes easy to label all flat-backs as not "best."
As noted above, all masters could get out a "best" if offered a commission with the right price tag. Even if they had no capable in-workers, they would have known the correct out-workers to accomplish the task. Remember, "bests" were off-the-peg items. The trick was finding clients who could afford "best" money and shot in a social circle where "best" guns were OK. This said, you can't ID "bests" by brand. All brands, with the possible exception of Boss, vended "sub-best" guns as their clients demanded: child's, lady's, keepers, rough shooting, fowling, etc. I know Woodward did because I own three of 'em, BLE's. Also, 'ole JW vended a few A/B grade SLE's, too.
DDA
