It was cheap, and became much cheaper. And it stays so today.
Yeah, but Schaefer was no slouch, in the scheme of Life, he was past blind filing & doing the heavy lifting. So it still has some intrinsic value being assembled by his hand and composed of a Belgian tubeset paired w/ a H&R Anson & Deeley Body Action under APUN #25; a composition one might say. So a True American - European Composition on a British Action, which in the end became a staple, namely the Boxlock, the Pinnacle of Perfektion for Hunters & Shooters.
All of the Doublegun History should be viewed one page @ a time.... Not just a simple retrospect, compressing time in the process.
After rereading all that junk I posted & more, me thinks Kutter is on the correct path & Schaefer sourced a H&R frame by some means & then a Liege tubeset & cobbled them both together.
It was cheap, and became much cheaper. And it stays so today.
It became cheap when mainland European barrels were sourced for an Anson and Deeley boxlock, built under the supervision of Westley Richards.
Me, I’d speculate the H&R suffered tubes that were destroyed in the era of conversion from black to smokeless powder, and somebody got it working with a surplus Belgian set of tubes. That is exactly what I meant by “monkeyed”.
An actual H&R, without question marks from Belgium stamped into the tubes, is still a valuable gun, here.
But the question that begs is what, if any, touchmarks did a bona fide H&R peddled / retailedAnson & Deeley Body Action wear¿ Was H&H getting the action from WR and slapping a tubeset on it like Schaefer¿ Were they getting a platform in the white or other¿
If I had to guess, initially the stuff came from WR, with plans for great sales, at which point, H&R would have started sourcing the stuff, except the barrels, locally. The great sales part didn’t really pan out, sadly.
I’ve heard less than 2000 guns were made, in all grades, so I doubt any raw materials were procured locally.
Happy to be proven wrong, if somebody else knows different.
But I will say that the action flats look just like the pic posted above with the ser# stamped slightly below the A&D pat info. My ser# is 973
The bbl flats carry only the (same) ser#. Stamped on what is the LH tube side flat. Same stamp/font. No other marks on the flats. No 'proof marks' on the action or bbl flats.
Just ahead of the bbl flats on both tubes is stamped a small '19'.
Top rib is marked with 'Harrington & Richardson..etc' marking.
I think it's a Grade #2. A small amt of engraving and border work. 10ga
But I will say that the action flats look just like the pic posted above with the ser# stamped slightly below the A&D pat info. My ser# is 973
The bbl flats carry only the (same) ser#. Stamped on what is the LH tube side flat. Same stamp/font. No other marks on the flats. No 'proof marks' on the action or bbl flats.
Just ahead of the bbl flats on both tubes is stamped a small '19'.
Top rib is marked with 'Harrington & Richardson..etc' marking.
I think it's a Grade #2. A small amt of engraving and border work. 10ga
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