This letter was sent to Greener, info Graham Greener. We'll see if a response is forthcoming;
Sirs; I have written a long history of Reilly of London which has changed the perception of the company quite a bit and the dating chart of which is now used by most auction houses. it was published in attenuated edited form in 2019 in Diggory Hadoke's on-line magazine but with 10 years of research is now 260 pages long. The text can be read here on p,94 of this line:
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=436538&page=94
In January 1882 Reilly first advertised selling guns "off the rack." Up to that time from 1828 on if he serial numbered a gun, it was built in one of his two large London workshops. However, congruently in 1882 his yearly serial number production jumped from around 650 a year where it has been for 10 years to over 1,000 - this without an increase in floor space. This indicates that like the rest of the London trade he began to import A&D boxlock actions from Birmingham to be finished in London. He began to advertise the boxlock at the same time.
In researching the 1880's, I have discovered three serial numbered Reilly's with Facile Princeps actions, one from 1885, one from 1890 and one whose serial number was not published. These actions have the G&N patent 2003 with a use number but no Greener patent 930 use number. They are proofed in London and do not have the Greener elephant on them.
I've speculated that he bought the actions from Greener. However, Reilly was also known to make copies of others' patents under license. I'm attaching photographs of the 1885 action. By any chance do you have any records of sale of FP actions in the white to other gunmakers in the 1880's time period? Did Greener license their patents to be made by others?
Many thanks. The history of UK gun-making is a never-ending Sherlock Holmes tale and anything you might add would be historical. (I have long since queried Purdey about Reilly's use of their patent 1104 but their records are "locked up" according to Nick Hardy.)
Gene Williams
McLean, Virginia
https://www.southamsauction.co.uk/a...alse&sd=0&pp=48&pn=1&g=1
