doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com E.M. Reilly; History; Chronology; Serial Numbers

============== *1 - Beginnings FOOTNOTES continued ===================

*1h. Reilly jewelery, silverplate, naval gun models:




*1i. Jan 1831 report of burglary at 12 Middle Row:
03Jan31, “Morning Chronicle” – burglary at Silversmith


============== *1 - Beginnings END FOOTNOTES ===================

Why this thread is not locked away in some Insane Asylum with you is beyond me.....

============== *2 - 1828: First Guns TEXT ===================

*2 1828: First Guns Made at 12 Middle Row, Holborn (Holborn Bars), London

Reilly’s first noted registration for a hunting license is in 1823.*2a This was no small thing. “Gentlemen” who were involved with guns were expected to fund a license. Lang, for instance, highlighted his having held such a license for 30 years (from 1827) in a pamphlet he wrote in January 1857 promoting center-break guns.*2b Reilly's license may have predated Lang's by 4 years.

Sometime around summer 1828 he numbered his first Reilly built gun which presumably was 01. Reilly's first advertisement specifically identifying himself as a "gunmaker" is April 1831;*2c (The January 1831 report on the burglary at Reilly’s jewelry shop also states he was a “gun maker” *2d. However, ads from summer 1828 make it clear he was already making guns for clients - and urging customers not to spend money for a "name."*2e The serial numbered guns included pistols, rifles and shotguns.

His guns during this period used the address "Holborn Bars." 12 Middle Row was at "Holborn Bars". "Bars" shows the area was one of the old tax stations for entering London.

Edit: A 22 August 1829 advertisement in the London "Morning Herald" does identify "Reily" (sic) at Middle-Row, Holborn Bars", as a "Gun Maker."*2f

Following are the earliest known Reilly serial numbered guns:

-- SN 88 - a pair of .50 cal. percussion dueling pistols with J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London engraved on the hexagonal Damascus barrels; These are the oldest extant Reillys and are dated circa early 1829. *2g

-- SN 162 - the earliest extant Reilly-made long gun; It is a single barrel 6 bore muzzle loader wild-fowler, J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London engraved on the barrel, also made circa 1829. *2h

-- SN 176 - also a pair of .50 cal. percussion pistols, almost identical to SN 88 above with J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London; These are the third oldest existing serial numbered J.C. Reilly guns and are also dated late 1829. *2i

-- SN 254 - Several early 21st century articles including an article by Terry Weiland mention a J.C. Reilly percussion pistol SN 254 as the (then) lowest known Reilly SN. It would date to 1829 per this chart. However, no photos or additional information can be found about this "phantom" legendary pistol. (The "press" unfortunately tends to copy and repeat with no verification of the initial veracity.)

============== *2 - 1828: First Guns END TEXT ===================

========= *2 - 1828: First Guns FOOTNOTES/ANNOTATION ==============

*2 1828: First Guns Made at 12 Middle Row, Holborn (Holborn Bars), London

. . . . .*2a. First noted J.C. Reilly hunting license:
13 Sep 1823 “London Morning Chronicle”


. . . . .*2b. Lang pamphlet January 1857


. . . . .*2c. 1st Reilly advertisements with “Gun Maker”:
03 Apr 1831. “Bell’s Life “ – Gun Maker


09 May 1831 "New Sporting Magazine" The first advertisements where he identified himself as "Gun Maker"


. . . . .*2d. 1st Reilly “Gun Maker” from the burglary:
08 Jan31, “Tradesman” – Gun maker + Silversmith


. . . . .*2e. 1st Reilly advertisements for guns. Reading the advertisements closely make clear he was selling his own named guns at the time.
24 Aug 1828, “Morning Chronicle” – 1st Reilly ads for guns


14 Jun 1829, "Bell's Life" – Early advertisement for Reilly making and selling guns


18 Jul 1830, "Bell's Life"


============== *2 - First Guns FOOTNOTES continued below ==============

Those „88“ dueling short smoke poles are just Dandy. What a story.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

============== *2 - First Guns FOOTNOTES continued ===================

. . . . .*2f. SN 88 - a pair of .50 cal. percussion dueling pistols with J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London engraved on the hexagonal Damascus barrels (photo from a private UK owner). A gentleman in UK read the Reilly history posted on Diggory Hadoke's on-line magazine Vintage gun journal and wrote to Diggory. He has a pair of J.C. Reilly Duelers, SN 88 with "Holborn Bars, London" on the barrels. These are now the earliest known Reilly's, which would date per my chart to early 1829 (but could just as well be 1828). The owner believes they were commissioned and bought by his great-great-great grandfather around 1829. He has given permission to reproduce these images.



. . . . .*2g. SN 162 - 6 bore muzzle loader wild-fowler, J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London engraved on the barrel. Photo from Holt's Auction.


. . . . .*2h. SN 176 - .50 cal. percussion pistols with J.C. Reilly, Holborn Bars, London; (Owned by Terry Buffum; Photos from Amoskeog Auction)



============== *2 - First Guns END FOOTNOTES ===================

============== *3 - Business Model TEXT =================

*3 Reilly Business Model:

JC Reilly early on adopted a business model which did not change during the life of the firm: i.e. provide a quality hand-made product for a moderate price and deliver it rapidly, and "make what would sell." *3a

Reilly was never an innovator - he was a businessman first and a technician/engineer second. But, with this model, and especially with the rise of EM, with his family connections to the gun trade, his ability to recognize a winning or commercially interesting invention or patent, and his flexibility enabling him to produce new products and abandon old ways, Reilly undercut more expensive and better known makers and made his profit on volume.

Reilly dealt in used guns taken on trade and sold guns under license.*3b However, he only serial numbered guns he built and he numbered his guns consecutively for 90 years with certain exceptions during the move to New Oxford-Street in 1847. Reilly had extensive finishing facilities in his large London buildings and no doubt stockpiled locks (and later after 1855 actions) and barrel blanks from outworkers to allow him to meet orders three times as quickly as his competitors.
. . .-- Example: Ads from the 1850’s in spring of each year consistently stated that Reilly had 100 guns in various stages of manufacture which were available for custom fitting and engraving; these guns were not previously ordered but were “speculation guns” stockpiled for expected customers based on anticipated demand. These ads state outright that this had been the company business practice for "more than 20 years." *3c
. . .-- Caveat: Around 1881 Reilly most likely changed some of the parameters of the company' business model; He probably begun using actions (A&D boxlocks for starters) from Birmingham bought "in the white" and finished in London.

================ *3 - Business Model END TEXT =================(see below).

=================== *3 - Business Model FOOTNOTES ======================

. . . . .*3a Business model:
1885, Wyman’s Commercial Directory:


18 Aug 1862: Bell’s Life


06 Jul 1867: "The Field" - discusses the low prices, and excellence of Reilly made guns and the fact that the"Field" author personally used one in India:


. . . . .*3b: May 1834, “New Sporting Magazine", “p, 414


. . . . .*3c: 05 Mar 1859, “The Field“ – Note in the ad that Reilly built a hundred "spec guns" as of March 1859 anticipating demand that fall, as they have done for 20 years. This is why Reilly could deliver a gun in a few weeks while others took months.


================ *3 - Business Model END FOOTNOTES =================

================== *4 Reilly Gun Maker TEXT =================

*4 1831: Reilly "Gun Maker"

As mentioned above the first Reilly advertisement so far found with "Gun-Maker" appeared in April 1831.*4a However, the report on the early January theft of jewelry from his shop identified J.C. as both “gun maker” and “silversmith” indicating that he was alreadly established in the gun trade at that time.*4b A Jul 1830 advertisement specifically mentioned guns of Reilly’s own make.*4c From 1831 forward Reilly identified himself solely as "Gun-Maker.” The fact that Reilly was making guns in London was widely reported in the British press at the time, an 1835 book on guns and shooting being an example.*4d.

His gun advertisements in 1831 targeted “gentlemen going abroad” and offered special rates to “country dealers” ordering his guns.*4e There are indications that during the early 1830's he was making guns "in the white" for the London trades as well. (A Reilly hammer found on an 1835 James Beattie gun, and the similarity of that gun to known Reilly long guns leads to this possible conclusion).*4f For an entreprenuer who had began making guns only three years earlier, this is an impressive expansion of his manufacturing capability and his marketing/retailing.

Note: Reilly continued to deal in jewelry for awhile. In London directories he is mentioned as a jeweler up to 1835.*4g He apparently continued to make “jewelry” of a type afterwards which included miniature cannons and guns; J.C. Reilly exhibited small brass mortar models at an exhibition in 1845.*4h

Note: 70 years later as Reilly fortunes began to wane, J.C. Reilly's grandson advertised the firm as "established 1835." This history knows more than the grandson did.*4i

================== *4 Reilly Gun Maker END TEXT =================

============= *4 Reilly Gun Maker FOOTNOTES ============

. . . . .*4a. 1st Reilly advertisements with “Gun Maker”:
03 Apr 1831. “Bell’s Life “ – Gun Maker


09 May 1831 "New Sporting Magazine": The first advertisements where he identified himself as "Gun Maker"


. . . . .*4b. 1st Reilly “Gun Maker” from the burglary:
08 Jan31, “Tradesman” – Gun maker + Silversmith


. . . . .*4c. 18 Jul 1830, "Bell's Life" – Reilly making his own guns:


. . . . .*4d. 1835, “Remarks on Shooting”:


. . . . .*4e. 1831 special rates for country dealers: 25 Mar 1831, “Bell’s Life”:


. . . . .*4f. 1835 James Beattie, Duffy and Weller 1978 catalog.:


. . . . .*4g. 1835 Jeweler: London Postal Directory, 1835:


. . . . .*4h. 1845, Brass mortar models exhibited at the 1845 Royal Polytechnic Fair in Scotland:


. . . . .*4i. 11 Feb 1903, “The Field” – “Established 1835”: Also, one of the last advertisements for 277 Oxford Street.


============= *4 Reilly Gun Maker END FOOTNOTES ============