doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Inverted name and address on a lock plate?

This is a 12-bore double-barrelled underlever pinfire gun by Samuel and Charles Smith of 64 Princes St. Leicester Square, London. Has anyone ever encountered an inverted inscription on a lock plate? Both lock plates are like this. Would anyone have any idea why such a thing would have been requested?

Steve Nash

Perhaps they are on the wrong sides of the gun?
Sorry, I could not help myself

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=383871&page=2

I'll bet skeettx is close to right. Possibly the fellow who was supposed to do the lettering was given the lockplates to letter, but he just made a bad judgement as to which was "right side up" . Those lockplates are not as easy to tell as are bar action lockplates.

I have seen this on some early back-action Parker guns.

Aha! The next question is why? I can�t imagine it is a mistake passed on to the buyer, not when gunmaking workmanship was at such a high standard of quality, and workmen spent years in apprenticeships. The lettering on the Smith is well executed, just �upside down�.

I wish I had one of those postage stamps with the upside down bi-plane on it...Geo

I am amazed that this mistake has survived as I am very aware of the ease that engraving mistakes can be rectified with a peening tool and judicious striking off. My most favourite restoration engraver had a 'senior' moment when engraving the number on a triggerguard. Thankfully I noticed it as soon as it came back and he had it back to rectify. On the 2nd time round it was absolutely impossible to tell it had been re-cut.
I think it was intentional, maybe for an antipodean?

Maybe intentional. It might have looked more readable in it's case with the letters that way.

What Daryl said, or maybe they're lettered upside down so the shooter could look down on them and admire his good buying choice while shouldering the gun.

No, when we stand up, we stand up. The same up is always up.
Some guns hang upside down over the mantle.
O.M

Thanks to everyone for your input, both serious and light-hearted! I have never come across such a thing before, and considering, collectively, how many guns we�ve all seen and handled, it is clearly a rare and unusual thing. I can only conclude it was a special request, as other Samuel and Charles Smith guns do not seem to have this feature (though all I�ve seen illustrated are from a later date). As to why, I guess that will remain a mystery. Perhaps Daryl is correct, particularly if you imagine a case with two guns - either two game guns or paired with a rifle - it would be a way to have both inscriptions nicely presented.

B. Dudley, can you provide more information on the Parker?

You do know it was a full sheet of 100 stamps that were misprinted. A single one sold for north of a cool million lately. I had to settle an estate of a stamp collector relative and found out that can be a snake pit of collectors and sellers. Had one appraiser try to swap half a dozen high grade stamps for lower grade examples. Collection was worth 250K ten years ago. But alas he had no upside down Jenny.

Didn't think anyone would know what I was referring to...Geo

Geo. Every small boy stamp collector dreamed about finding one of those stamps. Young coin collectors had the 1909 Indian head penny or the 1909 s vdb penny or copper 1943 penny. I�ve seen three �1943 copper pennies�, all fakes. The Jenny stamps are so well known they can tell you where each stamp came from on the original sheet.

Rare and obscure is what dreams were made out of when I was a kid. No batteries required.

I love the story about the jilted wife who mailed the divorce papers to her estranged husband using his stamp collection for postage. Moral from that story was to either keep your wife instead of trading her off for a younger version or don�t forget your stamp collection.

Now that was downright cold!...Geo

How is the hammer held to that lock ??
O.M

The screw head is long gone, I think it must have broken off pretty cleanly. There might be a layer of dirt covering up the remains of the shaft, or the hole. The gun is in quite poor condition, but collectors of British pinfires can't always be choosy, at least on this side of the Atlantic. The inverted inscription piqued my curiosity, though.

I have some carved oak boxes made by the Wheeler & Wilson company for their sewing machine attachments. In the center of the lid is a circle with a large W&W in the middle. Around the circle is written Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machines. On one of them the letter "N" is backwards (Or could be upside down) in the word machines. Apparently there were a lot of these made as they show up rather often. Unlike the stamps there are enough of them they do not bring a premium, nor are they discounted. Price matters not whether correct or incorrect. They just are what they are.

Stephen, would you comment on which way the address on the rib is facing? Wasn't it opposite to convention? (a little insider knowledge there as have handled the gun)

Hi JBLondon,

The rib address, though barely legible, is in the normal configuration, outward from the breech. It reads "Saml & C Smith Princes Street Leicester Square London".

Steve

Hmmm. At the time we were speaking with a fellow who felt it had been made that way for a left-handed shooter. He thought it would follow that the rib engraving would be the opposite direction also. Not so, it turns out.

I wondered about that explanation, and I checked when I got home... The Jones under-lever swings out in the usual direction (to the right, looking down the barrels). I do have a Jones-lever pinfire made for a left-hander, by Joseph Braddell & Son of Belfast, where the under-lever swings out in the other direction (it also has the �usual� rib inscription). The Smith gun is unremarkable in every respect, except for the inverted text on the lock plates.

Don't see where this would matter if the person was right or left handed. If that were the case then one side should read up & the other side down. The inverted side would be opposite for the left hander from a right hander.
Anyone ever seen gune with the writing inverted on One side, I haven't, course many of you have looked at a lot more guns than me.
I will say that when I want to look at the writing or engraving on the "Off" side of a gun I normally turn it around, not over.