doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Uk 1800's gun orders per year

The Reilly gun SN dating chart was made assuming that over the course of a year, gun orders would be pretty consistent. But thinking about French gun making, Manufrance always diverted to making bicycles in the late fall, winter, and back to shotguns in summer of each year, might it be that gun orders surged in late spring, summer of each years getting ready for the fall? (Reilly had an advantage here in that he delivered his guns within a month while others waited 6 months or more). Reilly perhaps tipped a hand in this question with this 1857 ad showing he was rebuilding 100 unordered guns preparing for summer orders.



There are Existing SN sales records for Pape, William Evans, Purdey and others for the 1800's time frame. Is there any historical evidence for gun orders per month? Can these be quantified? One would assume this would be pretty ubiquitous across the industry and might be used to hone dating chart numbers.

Gene, I'm certain that orders fluctuated during any given year, with peak orders happening after the shooting season, perhaps after trying something new or hearing/reading testimonials from fellow shooters. Guns would (hopefully) be ready in time for the next season. However, there could be many reasons to order or purchase a gun out of this cycle, such as ordering a gun for a son's birthday, etc. Perhaps there was a benefit to ordering outside the rush, in terms of quality or availability. If one had access to a maker's records, it would be interesting to plot order dates and delivery dates on a time graph, to test this hypothesis. In the pages of The Field, there is a definite lull in all things gun-related outside of the shooting season, and advertisers did stress the need to get orders in early if a new gun was required for the upcoming shooting season.

In the 16 January 1857 issue of The Field, the Editor remarked: "We have received several communications from gunmakers – the writers requesting us to postpone the time fixed for the trial of the various shot-guns and rifles, in order to allow of their completing an article fit for competition." This suggests the notion that gunmakers did not have many breechloaders that were not already in the hands of clients, and might help explain the lack of gunmakers' participation in the trials, versus individuals putting up their own guns for the trial (but only after the end of the shooting season).

Thanks Stephen. This idea - try to graph the average number of orders per month over a total year to hone the dating chart - is certainly quixotic. No amount of analysis can take into account financial crashes, changes in taste etc. Practically, the best my effort could do is to date the guns within a few months, which is certainly adequate for an auction house.

Still, the curiosity was there and it was created by the practices of Manufrance. "Papeman" on this site has the Pape records. I'm hoping that he could take a look at the books for three or four years in the 1860-'s-1870's to see if there were a pattern. Certainly Reilly throughout the history of the company built "spec guns". . .guns partially completed awaiting a buyer for customization. . throughout the spring of each year which were then bought and finished during the summers.