The world as it was is a never ending fascination. There are a couple of series of books which can bring that era - the 19th century - in gun terms back even if briefly:
-- George MacDonald Frasier wrote the greatest series of bawdy history of the era of 19th century British imperialism in his "Flashman" books... But his book "Mr. American" is one of the best fiction recapitulation of the class system in UK at the time:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Flashman-Papers-George-MacDonald/dp/0006470181-- It was/is a world so totally different from ours, destroyed by WWI and WWII that it is difficult to imagine or reconstruct. But to understand the guns, one has to understand the society and America and Europe in the 19th Century were just not the same.
-- The other series of books to recommend are the notes of Patrick Leigh-Femor...a linguistic genius (who couldn't count), who walked across old Europe before the apocalypse of WWII ,which with Nazis' and Communists destroyed what was left of old Europe.
To understand the guns, one has to understand the society. And the clientele of European guns and American guns from that time-frame is in itself a study in the difference in the social structure of the two continents.
Keith - seriously, you need help.
