Originally Posted By: L. Brown
Not really so different . . . other than the fact that quite a few of the European guild guns don't carry any maker's name, while it's very rare to find a "no name" Brit gun.

Most of the so-called guild guns aren't masterpieces, and most of them weren't made in one shop. They were cooperative projects involving outworkers, each focusing on his own specialty: stocker, actioner, barrel maker, etc. And in many cases, those outworkers also worked on guns made for "name" makers.

There were relatively few large "name" makers that did everything in house. Francotte in Belgium, Sauer in Germany, and Manufrance and Darne in France would be examples, along with Webley & Scott in the UK. Most of the smaller volume makers relied to at least some extent on outworkers. And in some cases, the name you find on a shotgun is that of the shop that sold it--and they may have had little or nothing to do with actually making the gun.


The quintessential British guild guns are the 'Army & Navy' pieces and for us Americans Birmingham made "Winchester" hammer guns ie the best double guns ever to grace the Winchester name. Those date back to good old days when like us today Great Britain was a superpower with large number of colonies.