A quick up-date on my survey.
Broadly speaking the Vickers and Vickers Armstrong guns fall into three categories.
Sidelocks.
Earliest s/n is 1054 going up to 1576, with the transition from Vickers marked guns to Vickers Armstrong occurring between 1334 and 1452. Bearing in mind Vickers almost certainly started numbering at 1000 or 1001, they were not a huge seller over the18 odd years that they made them.
Boxlock in 12 bore.
Have got three only numbers 90673 to 90817, quite a tight group.
Boxlock 16 and 20 bore.
Again 3 only guns 5030 to 5238. So presumably made by a different maker to the 12 bore boxlocks above?
Vickers Vanguard.
The most numerous with serial numbers going up to the 6000 range and one reported in the 10,000 range but unverified.
This is an on-going survey so any new contributions would really be appreciated.
Regards
Alan David
Sydney
