doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com William Evans

Where are all the Spanish back-springers? I haven't seen them.

jack

Lowell I don't think Westleys Richards reputation as a gun maker rests on the few you have seen at the old Springfield store...Westley Richards guns are like Scotts they have to be judged gun by gun....if you think neither made 'Best Guns' you are living a sheltered life.

Ol' h0meless0ne, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it's been said that all could make-up a best gun for the right client's cash.
...but it's the % of 'em that makes-up the "body-of-work."
If W&C Scott made a couple of thousand guns for export for every best - hey, their body-of-work would be in the export gun trade.
Dig!

I would describe William Evans in modern day parlance as 'The Lexus' of the gun trade.A company who provided THEIR customers with a customised gun.William didn't have the overheads of maintaining a factory or staff.
Any one who doubts the abilities and qualities of Westley Richards, Webley, W.C.Scott, W.W.Greener obviously knows very little about quality and the guntrade.What needs to be realised is that at its Zenith the Birmingham guntrade covered a very small geographical area and no doubt the artisans employed as dayworkers plied their trade to whoever and where ever they could, remember many of these men had a wife and eight or so offspring to feed.It was the craftsmen who had the skill not the Manufacturer.
Churchill, Wm. Evans,were the egotistical salesmen, Webley, Greener, & Westley were the engineering pioneers of the gun trade followed by Beesley, Roberts,Woodward.Although it would be fair to say that most Birmingham Gunmakers' motto should have been 'We have the solution, what is your problem'.
Let us not forget that outstanding work is currently being turned out by Greener,AA Brown, T R White, David Sinnerton plus a dozen or so more without mentioning H&H, Purdey,Boss,Watson, Aitken Grant, Cogswell who are all still beavering away.

Dig how do you think the 'Named' Belgiums (clunker guns with borrowed English names on them)...have effected English makers reputations like Scott, Richards and Greener. I know their names were borrowed allot.

From reading Lowells posts I get the feeling he got burnt by a 'Named clunker'.

In the UK, not at all because the quality difference is immediately apparent to anyone with rudimentary knowledge of firearms. Also, they were not imported here.

The fakes certainly caused anger and embarrassment- Greener sued an Australian firm for doing it - never saw a penny in compensation 'though. their impact was largely in the USA and the colonies.

I suppose we see it nowadays with Louis Vuitton luggage and Rolex watches faked in Asia.I don't think it has had much effect but those based in the USA may have mor info on what is easy or hard to sell because of name when quality is the same.

The factors I found useful in explaining why the market values makers' names differently are: social standing (who was this maker's client base), total number of guns produced, % of high original quality production, years in business, and enduring creativity (what that is still in common use is attributed to this shop). Note that these are explainations as to why the market has different brand values, not reasons it should.
Note also that the market's brand values have not remained constant over time and may well shift in the future.

As you can see, the foregoing has nothing to do with generally using a maker's name to asses an individual gun's quality.

If your stock and trade are keepers, exports and off the racks - then you are known as such. A smattering of bests here and there doesn't change that fact.
Mass procucers like Westley and Scott are known for the amount of guns made.
Btw, the Beesley action of 1880 maybe the most famous and longest lasting.
Some mentioned are long forgotten.

Lowell,
Not by me, they're not

Didn't you know Lowell was the North American Sales Rep. for Beesley.