doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lesser known makers

I just picked up a cute little T. Turner and Sons blne 20 ga. Great handling little bird gun with nice modern dimensions.

William Henry Monk of Chester

Charles Hellis (London), Linsley Bros. (Birmingham)

The name on the gun shows up in its value as Brand Value level. You must note that Original Quality grade is independent of brand. The British gun trade was generally able to get X pounds sterling for Y quality new gun with little influence of the vendor's name. There is a world of interesting things in studying the various shops and vendors.

DDA

Al, no there is no definitive reference other than the gunmakers daybook,and then only when they do note if the gun was bought in or not.

I quote, "All the men around here shoot Thomas Horsley made guns and they shoot them well."

I have the book, "Thomas Horsley Gunmaker of York" by David J. Baker. Another great book from an excellent author.

Charles Smith
DH Wallas

C.G. Bonehill. He made a great # of shotguns for U.S. firms prior to the McKinley Tariff. After that he made many shotguns out of his Belmont Gunworks with his name on the midrib shipped to many other countries. He also made guns for the trade.

Alexander Henry of edinburgh, stunning workmanship, beautiful guns. As someone said earlier, some of the irish made guns were amazing too, i've been lucky to handle a few (Kavanagh and Trulock and Harriss) and they were top class, and don't forget Rigby started in Dublin.
George Gibbs of Bristol, probably better know for their rifles, but i presume their shotguns were of a similar high quality. The shooting times magazine asked 10 people they considered the best game shots in the uk, what guns they thought were best. Amazingly several of them stated Edwinson Green were guns they would be very happy to use and they really liked.

There are just so many and I agree with quite a few here. I will add George Fuller of London to the list. I have one of his hammer guns in near mint condition circa 1876. He died in 1880 so is now little known but in his day was in close competition with Boss and Purdey although his output was much smaller. Lagopus.....

William Cashmore often moves under the radar. I believe the firm became quite popular in Australia. I have a sidelock 16 without any engraving whose intrinsic quality I would put up against any other English maker.