HomelessJ0e-

Very nice find! Thanks so much for posting that. My oldest shotgun and only damascus (and only hammer gun) happens to be a field grade Meriden Special. I don't think these shotguns ever got much respect, but I really like mine. I have handled and shot a contemporary LC Smith and at the risk of angering some LC devotees I would say that the Meriden was pretty close in terms of build quality and the stock on my Meriden shows no signs of cracking. My Meriden is quite a bit heavier (the LC had fluid steel barrels and the twist damascus of the Meriden is extremely robust). But the Meriden patterns very nicely (better than the LC I shot) with the 7/8 oz loads I use and I have shot the Meriden as well as I can shoot any shotgun on trap. Looking at the rib on the Meriden one can see a very heavy Parker influence and this may be no accident as the Meriden could have easily have been designed and manufactured by moonlighting or former Parker employees, and one might easily conclude that the new Meriden Firearms Company had no reservations about using the Meriden connection to promote their wares. I think Meriden also managed to get one of the better engravers of the day to work on the high-grade guns.

Drew-

In my 1908 Sears catalogue, there is a section that discusses the fact that the Meriden Firearms Company would build to the customer's order. While I suspect few went to the trouble or expense, this makes for the possibility of finding any number of variations on the Meriden theme. "At $50 and upward [and who knows how high this could be] Mr. Aubrey will continue making extra fine, elaborately engraved special guns to special order." The company went on to state that if you were one of these lucky customers "Mr. Aubrey will be glad to take the matter up with you personally, referring to every little detail and personally he will tell you all about it... ."

My Meriden is an earlier shotgun and uses V springs in the locks, later versions were made using coil springs. It is in every respect, other than nomenclature, identical to the A. J. Aubrey double barrel hammer shotgun shown in the 1908 catalogue. I would be very interested in seeing some of the sections in the Meriden catalogue, particularly if my shotgun is mentioned and to see if the prices of the Meridens were on par with those of the A.J. Aubrey shotguns.

Doug