Thank you Stephen - this is most helpful and interesting indeed!
That is the same address that is engraved on the rib.
And thank you for posting the photo - it's remarkable what beautiful objects were created in these rather dreary places!
Cheers!
mbatten
Dear mbatten;
I am pleased to be able to confirm my hypothesis that C.K. (Charles Kenneth Dawson) was the maker of your BLE. The confirmation is from a email of today by George Malcolm Cruxton gunmaker of Price Street Birmingham (still working after more than 60 years in the trade) and he states this about Dawson who was known in the trade by his shortened middle name, Ken Dawson: "It is one in the same he used to work underneath me the other side of the yard where I am now."
I urge you to procure a copy of the small book by David Williams on the Birmingham gun trade and read the several pages related to the various gun firms that were in the premises of 10/11 St. Mary's Row. These buildings were built in the 1700's and demolished to make way for the motorway ring road through and around Birmingham in the 1960's. It is likely your gun was one of the very last ever built there. These premises were occupied by the Carr Brothers as well as William Ford and of course, the famous engraver Harry Morris.
I did not know Ken Dawson, but I have heard the late Birmingham gun tradesman Jack Rowe talk of him many times. It takes a great deal of skill and experience to be a master gun finisher like Ken Dawson was.
Kindest Regards;
Stephen Howell
