Gavin Gardner is advertising this 10 bore Reilly SN "1920". - Est: £500 GBP - £700 GBP
E. M. REILLY A 10-BORE HAMMER GUN, NO. 1928 30-inch damascus barrels with 3-inch chambers, about improved cylinder borings (comment: wrong - cylinder bore), the frame, rebounding bar locks, hammers and top lever with fine scroll engraving, retaining faint traces of original hardening colour, Walker's patent action, 14-inch figured stock with semi pistol grip (comment: normal for Reilly shotguns 10 ga and larger) and steel butt plate, 8lb., nitro re-proof S1https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...queryID=f7ce49ffd3d7fd218341016319bc798e![[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]](https://i.imgur.com/uDqcahol.png)
This gun was discussed about 20 years ago on Internet gun club. The commentary contains a much more complete description of the gun.
. . .-- the IGC response was wrong on Reilly history but was probably as good as they had at that moment and just repeated a lot of old "urban legends" about Reilly (addressed on the Reilly line and history).
. . .-- However, it did have one glaring error which pops up occasionally on both Gavin and Holt's: i.e. "Tiger" assumes that every UK proofed shotgun after 1875 had to have had the proof mark "
Not for Ball". This is not true; it would only have the stamp if the gun were choke bored. Many many UK guns continued to be cylinder bored up to the early 1880's. I have examples.
In any event IGC did get the date of the gun right 1874. The Reilly date chart on p,57 dates it to mid 1874 whether the SN is 19206 or 19286. IGC chose 19286. I would use 19206 as on the barrels and fore-end but it doesn't make much difference for the dating chart.
IGC comment - from the Reilly Database:
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19286. 19206
https://www.internetgunclub.com/archived-forum/posts.php?topicid=1344I am a new member to this excellent forum and would value some assistance on the aforementioned gun. A little bit of current information;
- 10 bore hammergun, rebounding hammers, breech face in good condition with no pitting; some relatively basic scroll engraving. Table reads "H Walker's 1098 Patent"
- 30 inch Damascus barrels, excellent condition with v minor exterior pitting in some areas. Game/concave rib, wedge and escutcheon fore-end; recently nitro-proofed
- Semi pistol grip stock with original heel plate; some minor marking and one small (1cm) chip out of stock close to action.
Confusingly, the gun has a slight difference in serial numbers; the table reads
19286, the barrels and foreend
19206, the trigger guard
1928 – could the table be a mistaken number? Any help on assessing what the proof marks mean would be most helpful!
Guidance on history, originality and possible value would be greatly appreciated. I would like to use the gun ongoing for ‘fowling so am genuinely keen to find out more. A brief review of the history of Reilly could indicate manufacture between 1869-1872 (due to Paris address), but happy to be proven wrong here.
Guidance on history, originality and possible value would be greatly appreciated. I would like to use the gun ongoing for ‘fowling so am genuinely keen to find out more. A brief review of the history of Reilly could indicate manufacture between 1869-1872 (due to Paris address), but happy to be proven wrong here.
P.S. I cannot get photos onto this posting despite following directions. Any hints appreciated as I have several which may aid the identification of this gun
++++++++++++++response from IGC “Tiger”++++++++++++++++++
As far as we know, the Reillys, like most gunmakers, bought the various components and assembled them, or bought almost complete guns "in-the-white", stocked and finished them, and put their name on them. Although this gun has London proof marks, all of it is likely to have been made in Birmingham. Nothing wrong with that, good servicable weapons of better quality than anywhere else in the world for the price. The "Best" quality in a London gun came mainly from the final finishing which added a little to reliability and "feel" but most to beauty / elegance and pride of ownership.
Your gun was a nominal 10 bore but actually measured 11 bore. Lovely damascus barrels bearing the crown over V London View Mark (1637-1954) for preliminary inspection, the crown over bar over GP Provisional Proof Mark (1813-date) to reveal faults before any expensive work was done on the barrels, and the crown over GP London Definitive Proof Mark (1637 to date), all these adding up to Black Powder Proof. The barrel flats have two of these original marks as expected.
The action flats have the expected View mark, and they have the H Walker patent mark for his barrel bolting and safety for drop-down actions patent No 455 of 12 February 1872 (Use No. 1098 ).
Of equal importance to the marks are the ones that don't appear e.g. no NOT FOR BALL or CHOKE mark (so see what patterns it throws with various cartridges). The first of these was introduced in 1875, so this and the patent date mean the gun was made definitely not before Feb 72, or after 1875.
It must have been made a couple of years after 1872, say 1874 to early 1875, and we favour the latter because even if the gun was made by a large trade maker, the 1098 use number is quite a large number. You will have noted that neither we nor anyone else really know when the Paris shop closed, we only think it was shortly after 1872.
The gun was re-proved after 2005, we can't read the crossed swords date code and confess to not having the key to these recent codes! The two crowns over SUP are for the Superior Proof Mark for 1200 Bars, 10x76 is 10 bore 76mm chambers; 19.4 is the barrel diameter and crown over BNP is the Birmingham Nitro Proof Mark. Crown over R is the re-proof mark - why it is deemed necessary we don't know!
We think you can take it that the serial number is 19286 and that the engraver was an old man with poor eyesight and and a bad memory. Unlike the other gun we mentioned, we don't think this gun is made up of muddled parts!
