doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The pinfire game gun

Outstanding engraving, and quite mysterious!

Some pinfires had game scenes, but most had acanthus-leaf scroll engraving, a fore-runner of the fine rose-and-scroll or bouquet-and-scroll patterns prevalent on later guns. Acanthus is a group of flowering plants common in the Mediterranean basin. The Romans and the Greeks greatly used the acanthus leaf motif in architectural decoration. This was continued in Byzantine architecture, Medieval sculpture and wood carving, decorations in illuminated manuscripts, in Renaissance works, and on through to the Victorian era where acanthus leaf patterns can be seen almost everywhere. So, it is not surprising that the starting point for decorative gun engraving in Britain was the acanthus leaf. Often disguised as repetitive scrolls, the more open designs show the leaves very well. When done properly, the effect is subtle and discreet, placing the British pinfires apart from more ostentatious decoration on Continental guns.

Some makers made use of the same engravers, and over time 'house styles' developed. Boss & Co always used the Sumner family for engraving. Here are two Boss & Co. pinfires, or should they be called early Stephen Grants?

Boss & Co., "Makers of Best Guns Only," is always placed in the list of top three or four British gunmakers. Famously only producing one quality of gun ("Boss gun, a Boss gun, bloody beautiful, but too bloody expensive!" reportedly said King George VI), Boss & Co. has had an interesting history, and the firm continues to this day.

In 1780 or shortly afterwards William Boss moved to London to work for Joseph Manton, alongside James Purdey. In 1804 his son Thomas was apprenticed to him at Manton's, but when William Boss died in 1809 Joseph Manton took Thomas on for the remainder of his apprenticeship. Thomas Boss finished his apprenticeship in 1811 and continued to work for Manton, after which he set up his own business in 1812 as an outworker for the London trade, doing work for James Purdey, Charles Moore, and Charles Lancaster amongst others. In 1837 he moved his business to very fashionable 76 St James's Street. In 1851 Thomas Boss employed 10 men, and also his nephew, Edward Fields Paddison, as a journeyman gun maker. The firm made about 70 guns annually. Thomas Boss hired on a number of close family relatives into the business, with one exception: Stephen Grant, his workshop foreman.

Stephen Grant had served his apprenticeship with William Kavanagh & Sons of Dublin, from 1835 to 1842. In 1843 he moved to London to work for Charles Lancaster, and in 1850 he started to work for Thomas Boss. Thomas Boss died on 17 August 1857, aged 67, and his widow, Emma, then aged 62, inherited the firm. She made Stephen Grant the managing partner of the business, and during this time the quality of Boss guns was in particularly high regard, though its designs were conservative. In 1866 Grant left and established his own business at 67a St James's Street, almost next door to Boss & Co. which, it was reported, was a great source of friction with his old partner. Stephen Grant went on to become one of the best London gunmakers and his guns, notably his sleek side-levers, are still much sought after. Whether Grant still built a few pinfires from his new address, or started making centre-fire guns exclusively, is not known to me.

Here are two near-identical 1863-dated guns carrying the Boss & Co. name and St. James street address, built a few months apart by the same outworkers' hands, and whose quality was overseen by Grant. In fact, most Boss & Co. guns made during the period Stephen Grant was managing director were pinfires, as Boss & Co. started making them in 1858 (alongside percussion guns), and did not start making centre-fire guns before 1866. The actioning on these guns was by Edwin Charles Hodges, barrels by John Portlock, stocks by Daniel Holliman, screwed and finished by William Byrne, completed with locks by Joseph Brazier, and engraved by John Sumner. They were sold by Boss & Co. from 76 St James's Street, and like most British guns of the period, many skilled hands were involved in their making.

12-bore number 2024 was built for Charles-Cecil Martyn, ordered on 22 December 1862 and completed on 3 April 1863. It has a double-bite screw grip action, 29 7/8" damascus barrels, and weighs 6 lb 6 oz.. Martyn would have been 53 when the gun was purchased. He was a very wealthy man, having inherited £150,000 from his father, who died in India in 1830. Charles-Cecil Martyn was elected to the British parliament in 1841 for the seat of Southampton, but Martyn's election was declared void the following year on accusations of bribery by his agents. Sadly he did not have long to enjoy his gun, as Martyn died in 1866.





Near-identical 12-bore number 2068 was also made in 1863, built for Sir Sandford Graham, 3rd Baronet Graham, Kirkstall, Yorkshire and Edmund Castle, and Captain, Grenadier Guards. This gun is also a double-bite screw grip action with 29 7/8" damascus barrels, weighing an even 7 lbs.. Sir Sandford Graham was 42 years of age when he picked up his gun, and had more time to enjoy his, passing away in 1875. Of note, his father, the 2nd Baronet, was a close friend and travelling companion of Lord Byron, the English poet, peer and politician. What a circle these people moved in!









These are good examples of the pinfire game gun as an expression of the wealth and influence of their owners, for whom shooting was an upper-class pastime, on shoots held at fine estates. I wonder in whose presence these guns were used?