doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lancaster Engraving

Would nayone know who Lancaster used to engrave
his guns. I have an back action SLE, circa 1890s, and recently acquired a back action side- lever hammer, considerably older, circa 1870s, and the engraving is well excuted and near to if not identical. I searched through the books I have but have not been able to locate any sources. I suspect Lancaster did not have an in house and used an outside engraver well known to the London trade. Just guessing here.

Thanks,
John

I've asked this question a few times, short answer is nobody really knows. The current owner of the records doesn't have the "cash books". The cash books would have answers to a lot of the questions about Lancasters. Questions like who for sure made the "0" prefixed body action guns (Beesley? Osborne? HB&P? Etc ) Who was the house engraver? Unless those cash books are located, we will probably never know.

Despite all of my study of gun engraving, I can't answer your question. 19th century British engravers were not considered any more noteworthy than any other gun craftsman and never signed their work. In some cases a known engraver's work can be identified by their scrollwork but most 19th century engravers worked in anonymity.

It is likely, I think, that many guns were engraved jointly by several engravers. Factory records from Greener tell of this. The Dickson best round actions sent to the Sumner engravers on Thursday and requested return the next Tuesday suggest one engraver could not do the entire gun.

The John Rigby & Co. London serial number ledgers frequently identify the engraver for their best guns. For instance, during the 1890 to 1905 period, the names included Miller, Doncaster and Haynes.