doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cogswell and Harrison Question

Jack Maloney, my 1907 Avant Tout was factory built with a "crossover" stock designed to be shot from the right shoulder with the left eye aligned with the rib. As with other factory built crossover guns of quality, the metal parts were also bent to align with the bend of the stock. These metal parts include the top tang, the bottom tang, the trigger guard, the side plates both left and right. On some guns, the top lever is bent to match the bend of the top tang and the safety slide is machined on a curve, but my Avant Tout has a standard top lever and safety slide. Cogswell and Harrison advertised the availability of the crossover feature in their catalogs, very unusual for a gunmaker to do. My gun is in carefully field used condition with smoothly worn finishes, but is very well preserved because of good care and 100 years of storage in its original labelled trunk case. It is a classic British game gun at well under seven pounds, straight grip, and 30" barrels of moderate choke. The assisted opening feature is quite user friendly and closes very smoothly with little effort beyond the compression of ejectors, a feature included on many guns the we do not usually think of as "assisted opening" like the Parker and Model 21.

It appears that some Coggie models gained (or lost) sideplates at various times. Greg tells me he's seen photos of sideplated Blagdons. I have a photo of a Blagdon from Coggie catalog copy, 60's era, and it's a conventional, non-sideplated boxlock.

Thanks for the description, eightbore! Sounds like a really interesting Coggie - no doubt made in the Gillingham Street Works in London. Have you contacted the modern C&H to get the full history?

I have not requested a letter on my gun. The supposed original owner, W. Sebag Montefiore, should be easy picking on Google, if he is mentioned at all. His name is embossed on the case.

I seem to remember a higher grade true sidelock that they made.
G&H had an earlier version of one with back action locks a while ago. I believe that particular one had been cleaned up &/or restocked by Kirk Merrington.

Looked nice and handled well.

It turns out that the original owner of my gun is not "easy pickings on Google" after all. Two authors of the same surname occupy the first several dozen pages of Google references with no reference to their family tree that I could find. I may have to get a letter on the outside chance that it would include the name that the initial "W" refers to.

C&H was noted for building just about anything anyone was willing to pay for. But I'd sure appreciate it if you'd copy that 1960s photo and post it here, Larry. While C&H played fast and loose with model names, the 'Blagdon' model was sideplated in every catalog and example I've seen, and so was the 'Sandhurst.'

Thanks so much to everyone!! Just a great wealth of information.

You have increased my knowledge base but leaps and bounds!!

Thanks!!

Greg

Jack, you seem to have some knowledge about the C & H guns. Do you consider them a decent value based on price compared to other London guns? Is it because the guns have a fair amount of their manufacture done by machines that the prices seem so low or is it another reason. I wish I knew more about them. I bought the book but have done little more than thumb through most of it. I got my Avant Tout because I was looking for a solid 16 gauge and the price seemed very reasonable.

Skip

Steve V.....I remember seeing an Extra Quality Victor on Atkins G&L site...seems like that was a fine & beautifully engraved quality SLE Gun...don't think it was a plated BL....is your mates a SLE Gun??
franc