I am looking at a H. Monk sidelock 12ga sxs circa 1923. I have not been able to find much information about this gunmaker. I'm curious if anyone has an opinion on this maker's guns and/or if you have any information about these guns?

Thanks

not much but a friend has a 10 ga hammer gun with Damascus barrels. It is more like a heavy 12 and by all accounts a great piece.

Hello grayjr5002
Welcome on your first posting

https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=527010

and

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x487add4f0f9d1a99%3A0x2f96f81a8879750d!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP6A54ey8RJ8Y7Gp38x-t2GjWYQjCVd253S7i5m%3Dw213-h160-k-no!5sH.%20Monk%20gunmaker%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipP6A54ey8RJ8Y7Gp38x-t2GjWYQjCVd253S7i5m&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw_PbAhoj3AhU6mGoFHYPcBnkQoip6BAhPEAM

MIke

Looking at this: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01318739 you're just a couple of weeks too late. It looks as if the business has very recently been dissolved. A long time since I was in Chester but recall visiting the shop which was most interesting and I still have a couple of old catalogues from there. I would suspect that your gun would most probably have been made in the Trade and retailed by Monks. Lagopus.....

I once owned a fairly light Monk sidelock, cased in a nonoriginal case. I believe it used the Rogers action. At the time I assumed it might have been made by Webley and Scott.

Thanks all for the info

I have this copy of a H Monk case label I acquired sometime in the 1960s. I am sure it was after 1900 and before 1950. It does not look up to much but it is the only version of H Monk I have ever come across guns sold under the Monk name dried up and the shop sold just any make that was bought in.

These are from my picture files. Possibly I found them at the Internet Gun Club.

Gray,

I have a 2” 12b marked Henry Monk that was made by Arthur Howell in Birmingham in the early 1930s. It is a very nicely finished and game scene engraved BLE, and it is my favorite 2” gun.

I contacted Monk 8 years ago for any information that they might have about it, and all that they could/would tell me was that at that time the serial numbers were derived from the year that the gun was made, followed by the order in which the gun was made that year. For example, number 19359 would have been the 9th gun made in 1935.

All the Monk guns I have handled or read about have shown that Monk followed relatively closely the Trade " standards" for price vs quality. Pretty much that says a gun will be honest in that it will be what it looks like and price indicate. I think Monk guns of "best work" quality are quite rare. Not that Monk's could not have gotten out a "best work gun," had a customer placed a bespoke order. Monk's would have gone to the trade/outworkers who were capable of "best work" (and charged accordingly) to make up for any lack within his inworkers. A Monk brand midgrade sidelock or boxlock will be of the same quality as any other Brit brand. Its price, however, will be 1/2 of a Brand Value One maker (Boss, H&H, Purdey, or Woodward) and 2/3 of a Brand Value Two maker (17 makers in this level) for "identical" Original Quality Grade and Current Condition.

DDA