Tony,
No problem with being described as a softy when it comes to Blanch guns! I have been described a lot worse!
Clair,
If you look at the top two pictures you will see the interceptor sear at rest lying in front of the breast of the tumbler.
It moves downwards as the trigger is pulled, out of the way of the breast and so allows the tumbler to fall fully.
I particularly like this system as it forms a solid barrier to the fall of the tumbler, locked between the back of the action and the tumbler.
It was called the 'Block Patent Safety' which you can see stamped into the inside of the lock plate just above the serial number. This is often attributed to a Holland & Robertson patent, extensively used by Scott in the Scott & Baker Patent guns and often engraved on the backaction lockplates of guns sold under their name and a multitude of others.
To the best of my knowledge it was never actually specified in any patent, just illustrated in the drawings, but I may be wrong.
H&H Dominions were made in Birmingham but not by Scott and certainly not by Blanch. Can't remember by who, it is in Donald's book for those interested. However, I believe the locks and actions may well have been bought in 'in the white' from Scott. Why else the very distinctive shape?
The shape of the lock plate, and in fact the entire cocking mechanism, can be traced back to Thomas Perkes who patented the cocking mechanism and later sold it to Scott. It formed the basis of their actions from the end of the Scott & Baker patent no 716 guns, which were difficult to make into an ejector model, until they adopted the Roger style of cocking the action with rocking levers.
Blanch, like Evans, were very much a retailer rather than a 'maker by the breechloading era. That is not to say they didn't have the skill or knowledge to produce their own guns but why bother paying for an expensive workshop full of gunmakers when they had access to the likes of Thomas Perkes, John Robertson and many other top flight gunmakers to make their guns for them?
The very bold engraving was their house style which they stuck to faithfully from the muzzle loading days right through to the 1st WW with a 'brief' flirtation with traditional bouquet and scroll in the 1870's through to the mid 1880's.
Like Grant and Boss during the Paddison era, Blanch tended towards the sidelever rather than the new-fangled toplever and decent quality hammerguns with the latter are very rare, most being trade guns bought in totally finished.
LeFusil, you are right about the Spanish guns, big mistake but they had to try and make money in difficult times. Baraction SLE are nearly all Webleys, screw grips and all. However the finish is top quality and the engraving is often by Kell's workshops.
