Here is a curious development.

I bought the Cogswell & Harrison that was part of the group of guns sold by this dealer.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/878878522

Naturally, I also went and immediately got myself a copy of Cooley & Newton's "Cogswell & Harrison -- Two Centuries of Gunmaking," Safari Press, 2000.

This shotgun has a very beautiful stock, unfortunately broken at the wrist and imperfectly repaired. The right hammer, at half cock, rested farther forward than the left, and needs adjustment.

I immediately shipped the gun to Kirk Merrington.

Meanwhile, the book arrived. Plate three opposite page 48 is a photograph of Cogswell & Harrison hammergun 14742 described as an ejector gun made in 1887, from the collection of Emil Rosner. My shotgun has the same serial number, and looks identical. However, the book describes it as an ejector gun. I saw no ejectors and the seller specifically said it had no ejectors. Strange.

It is very cool, of course, to wind up with a gun illustrated in the reference book on the Gunmaker.

I thought it was a really fine example of the London Best Gun. I own a Blissett, and I compared my Blissett once in detail with a Purdy of the same period and style and concluded that they were of identical quality. I think the Cogswell & Harrison is very much in the same league. I hope that the stock can be repaired. I took a flyer on the gun because I have seen this kind of break repaired so well that you couldn't even tell it was there. Time will tell.

I wonder if Emil Rosner participates here.

Last edited by David Zincavage; 09/27/20 12:34 PM.