All right, here's what my Magic 8 Ball says. But before that let me recap a bit. Schoverling & Daly was founded in either 1862 or most give 1865. In 1868 Friedrich Wiebusch was listed as a silent or special partner and he expired in 1893, 2 years after August Schoverling. I'm fairly confident that Friedrich Wiebusch was founding partner in Wiebusch & Hilger(Hilger & Co. founded in 1848??) which arrived on the scene around 1876 and continued till say 1928. After Friedrich Wiebusch expired, Charles Frederick Wiebusch, William S. Hilger & M. Taussig were at the helm and were mainly blade peddlers. In 1892, about the time they were listed as the sole Sauer agents, they were in a tiff with the U.S. of A. over bowie knives, which they considered to be sidearms but the government didn't see it that way & they lost. The seem to have drug in some Belgian arms also and all appears to have left port at Antwerp. Getting back on track, in 1869/1870 Schoverling & Daly advertised as being an agent of William Powell & Sons and the scattergun in the advert looks to have the lifter action but the verbiage is as follows:
"4 systems - Lever Under Guard Double Grip, Side Snap, Top Snap Double Bolt & New Triple Fastening" and I am pleased to see
B. Jacob of Selma, Alabama as an agent. I think it was in 1871 or 1877 as I've gotten my dates crossed but surely in the 1870s, SD&G had a satellite office at No. 65 Weaman Street, Birmingham and that seems to be the address of Tolley. Schoverling & Daly were involved in several import/retail houses and just like the tale that Charles Daly spun on the stand in the early 1890s(A. Schovering possibly would have been in the hot seat but he was on holiday in Germany where he expired) it seems that components were being imported as follows as all along with others were listed as agents of Schoverling & Daly:
Tubes to William R. Schaefer was located 61 Elm Street, Boston, Massachusetts;
Locks & Traps to Thomas L. Golcher 116 West Girard Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(Joseph Jakob was also in Philly);
& Stocks/wood to Schoverling & Daly in New York. This would explain how all those similar components landed up on American assembled sporting weapons from the period. Now the possibility exists there were other import houses but these were Schoverling & Daly agents in the cities where the imports arrived. Schoverling & Daly advertised the "Daly Gun" as an import gun but then when the import tariffs were imposed the "Daly Gun" was a homegrown sporting weapon. Then in 1879 bicycle peddler Joseph Gales was added to the management.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse