Bv, its to light for a pigeon gun or a wild fowler. It is a nicely finished game gun.
Gm; It is indeed nicely finished. Did you notice the photo that shows a bit of the face of the standing breech? Very very clean for 1926 or for that matter even 50 years ago.
I am pleased that we know that Boswell did have a grading system, and pleased that Chris was able to help with the dating of the gun.
As to the engraving of the scroll being deep. The engraver removes a bit of steel in the negative spaces of the scrolls and then makes a few cuts to provide a three dimensional deep appearance. I have for years tried to learn who the engraver was that engraved this Boswell and many other guns with this same scroll/gamescene style--although the game scene is not always the same and sometimes birds and dogs. In my personal collection of Birmingham A&D's I have a game scene gun of similar quality engraved by the same engraver. There are certain details of engravers work that you can examine to ascertain "matching" the work with engravings on other guns, such as the leaves in "running vine" engraving--no two engravers work on the running vine leaves style will be the same exactly, viewing under a microscope. Another area where the difference between engravers work will be in the "nicks" when a border is cut using nicks ( V cuts with either a flat or square graver).
I also noticed that the pins are engraved with the Tudor rose style and not the normal less expensive simple flower style. This demonstrates more time was taken by the engraver and more cost thereof.
We have a couple of professional engravers who view this site and maybe they will be kind and tell us of other areas where certain engravers work can be determined or matched--a bit like Scotland Yard investigation.
Lovely gun.
It will be good if the owner of the gun can take some photos of the barrel flats and let us see if the gun has the Birmingham viewers mark (cross pikes with numbers and letters) to see what year the gun was proofed. I believe Birmingham began to use the viewer marks in about 1921. Also take photos of any initials on the barrels to show the who machined the lumps and finished the barrels.
Bv
