doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com jp clabrough & bros

picked up a 12 ga side lock. birds on both locks dog and birds on trigger guard small scrol on top and bottom fine damascus barrels ejectors four digit ser#. it needs a hammer for the right side and maybe new wood some day that i can take care of. I dont know much about them looks to be very well made in its day I got it for 150$ but it needs some work is it of much value if fixed thanks guy for any info

They made mostly low end/middle end guns. I've never seen a best made by Clabrough. I've owned a couple of very nice ones. In my opinion all of the animal engraving that I've seen on them has been naive, or in other words a little cartoonish.

They were a Birmingham maker, with a strong marketing presence in San Francisco. While I generally agree with Mike Harrell's assessment of their engraving, there are "best guns" by Clabrough - Larry Shelton has them in his collection. I suspect they will be in his new book.

About 1877 Clabrough sold part interest in his San Francisco operation to William Golcher of St Paul. William Golcher was part of a large family of gunsmiths. William had retired from his gunsmith business. He eventually brought out Clabrough. His sons continued to run the business. A Golcher ran the business until almost 1950, 3 generations later. William's brother Thomas of Philadelphia, was one of the gunsmiths who offered the Daly guns for a time.

They made a broad range of guns. Most of those that are seen today are in the low to middle range. There were also some rather well made guns, all from Birmingham. It seems as time went on, they focused more on general outfitting and fishing.

William Golcher in 1860. Early member of the St Paul volunteer fire brigade.


A 1904 ad.


There are several members here who have Clabrough guns. Also a few with the Golcher-Clabrough guns. The engraving changed under Golcher management.

Terry, I would appreciate it if you put me in touch with Shelton.

Pete

Lawrence P. Shelton published a book; J.P.Clabrough & Bros in 1978.The book provides a great deal of information on Clabrough and also Golcher. Included in the book are copies of Clabrough Catalogues. In the past I have owned a number of Clabrough guns of various grades. I can confirm that they did indeed produce a best quality gun. The example that I owned was #5510 a very fine 12G bar action hammer gun with game scene engraving.The engraving was on a par with best guns of the day. A feature found on Clabrough,s best guns is a clover leaf top rib extension.I have only seen one other Clabrough gun of the same quality, it also had the clover leaf rib extension.

Roy,

Thanks.

skitch,

Here is an earlier thread on Clabrough.

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...3422668850aaeb5

Pete

thanks for the info I have pics of the frame i try to get them on

Keep in mind that the UK, Birmingham especially, was a "trade." Most/all manufacturing shops were headed by a master gunmaker. Every master knew how to get out a "best" gun. If he didn't have all needed skills in-house, he most surely knew where to get the work done by out-workers. So, a " best work" gun can show up with anyone's name on it. The issue never was about designs, materials, or skills. It was always about getting the commissions to build such guns. Some names were more successful than others in attracting "best work" commissions.

Don,

That is an interesting perspective, as always. Never viewed it that way before. It really did come down to attracting the business whether British, Belgian, American, etc. Had a long conversation that centered on this topic last week, trying to explain / understand why a maker of $20.00 guns put out a catalog with $300 guns in it. It was all about attracting the business.....

Pete

Yep,it was. Some makers understood and acted on this fact better than others. Consider the differing perspectives of, "If I build it, they will come" as opposed to, "If they come, I will get commissions to buitd it." The skills of a master were not enough. It also required business, marketing, and social accumen.