Daryl brought up a good point. When a British gun has the original maker's marks on the rib of a rebarrelled gun but the original maker had nothing to do with the installation of the new barrels, is that OK? We're talking here about guns that were rebarrelled without any connection with the original maker, and spuriously marked. It is a common situation but not one that purchasers of older guns should be comfortable with. As long as the new barrels are the original length, the letter of provenance from the original maker would give no clue of the non original barrels. The difference of the actual value of the original and the non original gun could be in five figures, if the facts were known. I think Daryl is talking about the original maker subcontracting the new barrels, a different situation entirely. Subcontracting is perfectly fine since the customer discusses the rebarrelling with the maker before writing the check.
