doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com E.M. Reilly; History; Chronology; Serial Numbers

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Spreading the word

At the Southern I met and talked to Mr. Dan Morphy of Morphy Auctions. At his request I forward to him the Reilly History, Extant SN dating chart, and the dating chart for Reilly trade labels. Today the following was received from Eric Wagner of Morphy Auctions:

Mr. Williams,
I just wanted to reach out on behalf of Morphy Auctions and thank you for sending us the information on E.M. Reilly. I have added it to our reference library.
Thank you!

In addition I chatted for some time with Rick Henley, the Executive Director of Acquisitions of Rock Island Auction Company and also fowarded the Reilly data to him. The following reply was received.

Gene,
Thank you so much for this information, I am certain I will find it helpful in the future. I enjoyed speaking with you at the Southern as well. Please let me know if there is anything I can help with in the future.
Rick Henley

I've also sent the data to Kirby Hoyt, Steve Barnett, Vic Venters, , and a number of big gun dealers and experts in the USA and UK including Donald Dallas & Diggory Haddoke. (Mr. Dallas' comments are posted above; Diggory published an earlier form of the history and date chart in his on-line magazine 2 years ago).

Donald Dallas's email:
Dear Gene,
Many thanks indeed for sending me your vast amount of research that you have undertaken on Reilly. I had never read the articles in Diggory's journal so it was all brand new to me. I must congratulate you on your lengthy and so well researched history of Reilly. I well know the considerable amount of hours that go into a piece of proper research like this.

It is so heartening that you have elevated the name Reilly where it belongs. I found it absolutely fascinating and had no idea that Reilly was such a big manufacturer. Like others I assumed, erroneously, as you explain that he was a retailer. I will now completely revise my opinion of Reilly. I was a student at the London School of Economics in the early 1970s and used to pass along New Oxford Street every morning and I always used yo think of Reilly.

The information was sent to Cyril Adams before he died who wrote the following three weeks before he passed away:

Mr. Williams:
Thank you for your exhaustive and well-written history of REILLY. You have produced a much-needed work which will be studied by students of English Guns and Rifles for both knowledge and pleasure.
Good job, Mr. Williams ..........Cyril Adams

There is a point to this; If one thinks that the research is solid, then why let false information stand? Not to say something about bad narrative being published is to be complicit in its errors.

LIST OF EXTANT GUNS MOVED TO P. 109

LIST OF EXTANT AND IDENTIFIED GUNS MOVED TO P. 109

IDENTIFIED GUN LIST MOVED TO P. 109

FOOTNOTES MOVED TO P. 109

I've got a letter on a Williams and Powell (Liverpool). The action, SN and AD patent number date to the 1880s, but the gun was not completed and delivered until the 1920s.

There is a recent YouTube video on TGS outdoors, “The Langstone Wildfowler” a custom William Evans box lock. Well worth watching.

It was ordered and built about 40 years ago.

The customer wanted 3” chambers so a long table action was indicated.

John Resteghini , then at William Evans, built it using an action he had on hand.

The label on the action showed that it had been supplied for £4 in 1904.

A Reilly was sold at Southams Auctions on 10th September, 2015. It was a percussion, sporting rifle, 24" half-stocked, octagonal barrel, inscribed E M Reilly, London. leaf sights, platinum breech plug, brass mounted wooden ramrod, scroll engraved hammer,tang and lock. scroll engraved furniture, with pineapple finial, and figured stock. Serial No. 10621.
Over the last 45 years, I have come across many Reillys at auctions, and I still have over a 1,000 auction catalogues, going back to 1970. Reading through them could take a long, long time (something at my age is in short supply) but I will endeavour to pass on any that I find. I am NOT a tech wizard, so scanning and copying them might prove beyond my meagre talents, but I will try!
Back in October, 2020, I sold, at Ryedale Auctions, a number of my pinfire and hammer guns, including a Reilly 14g. U/Lever opening, 28.5 " damascus barrels. Serial No. 133081. It sold for the princely sum of £280. It was a pinfire to centre fire conversion.

Hope this is of interest. Dave

Thank you Mr. Ivanhoe. I happened to already have 10621 (1858) which sold at Southam's

http://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/a...lot-29b015bb-a4ec-437c-ab87-a4f700ac96eb
.376 percussion sporting rifle by E M Reilly, 24 ins octagonal half stocked barrel inscribed E M Reilly, London, leaf sights, platinum breech plug, brass mounted wooden ramrod, scroll engraved hammer, tang and lock, scroll engraved furniture with pineapple finial, figured stock, no.10621
By Southams Auctioneers & Valuers


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13308

I'm going to assume that the converted pin-fire is SN 13308 (1864) and that the "1" is superfluous. A six digit serial number would put it post 1922 and into the Riggs era. If you don't mind, I'll write up 13308 for the extant gun chronology. And should you run across any Reilly's in those old catalogs, I would like to record them all. No gun in the last couple of years has forced me to change the chronology but you never know. There's always something new.

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Col. Jacob's rifle - explosive shells

For instance from 1856 to 1865 Reilly advertised Col. Jacob's SxS rifle with an iron tipped explosive bullet that allegedly could reach out 2,000 yards. Would love to see one; (and note the above comments on Reilly's patent for explosive shells and Reilly similarly making iron tipped explosive shells for Sir Samuel Baker from as early as 1854):


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Nuthall patent rifling

And in 1859 Major Nuthall came up with a patent for rifling (Patent 1167, 10 May 1859) for which Reilly had manufacturing rights: Don't even know what this patent was all about.


Here is the version made by Turner"
THE SECOND BY THOMAS TURNER, FISHER ST., BIRMINGHAM, CIRCA 1860 - with 31 ½ in. (80 cm.) barrel sighted to 1000 yards, marked 'MAJOR NUTHALL'S PATENT' and with rounded groove rifling (Patent 1167, 10 May 1859), Birmingham proof marks


(Of course since Reilly was "only a retailer," per late 20th century kibitzers, all this manufacturing stuff couldn't have taken place and those rubes from the 19th century were obviously victims of a "hoax.")

Thanks again
Gene Williams

Hi Gary, Just browsing through an old Weller & Dufty catalogue, dated 12th December 1966.
Came across this item:

"A high quality double barrelled underlever .450 blackpowder rifle, by E>M> Reilly& Co. Serial No.21300. Damascus barrels, with matted rib, bolted back action locks beautifully engraved with fine scrolls, chequered fore-end, and pistol grip, nicely figured stock with cheekpiece, sling eyes, hammers repaired, very good condition and working order, with some original finish. Barrels 26".
Do you have any knowledge of it? I have hundreds oif these old catalogues, and I aim to try to go through a few each day. I will list any Reilys I find, plus any English pinfires. Dave

Ivanhoe, I do not have 21300 which would date per the chart to summer 1878. (An easy check on what guns are known is to look at the above list). That is an excellent find and Thank you. Any others you turn up would be highly welcomed. Surely at that time period there were scores of these old guns still around.

Gene Williams

If you run across any J.C. Reilly muzzle-loaders with a SN in the 5000"s, that might help the above hypothesis that There may have been a 5000 numbering series in the early 1840's.