Thanks Raimey, that is very helpful. I'll clarify a bit what we know about Reilly, Paris and Liège.

Reilly opened his sales shop in Paris and almost simultaneously began advertising the Reilly-Comblain both in February 1868. But, I don’t believe there was a connection. Reilly always was a Francophile, something possibly related to Ireland and the Catholic Church. A French woman was found in his house during the 1861 census; he loved showing at the Paris Universelle world fairs 1855, 1867 where he won the whole thing, 1878 and 1889. He was convicted of trying to smuggle shells to his shop in Paris during the Franco-Prussian war violating UK neutrality, etc. I don't know if he spoke French but this is possible - some Reilly advertisements from the early-mid 1860's have "Ici, on parle français."

There was no Paris proof house before 1895. Bernard ran a proof house out of his shop but it was not mandatory. It wasn't until 1960 that completed guns in France were required to be proofed. Reilly, however, did not make guns in France and there was no French law requiring them to be proofed there.
https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=618171&page=5

I do believe Reilly and probably all the early breech loading center-break gun makers in Uk including Lang and Hodges early on used Belgian tubes. Maybe Belgian actions - there was no infrastructure in London in 1855-56 for double tubes with hooks and lumps or center break actions as Blanch's obituary and the Reilly December 1857 letter to "The Field" made clear.

This cannot be proven as of now. However, this is alluded to in letters to "The Field." Supporting this, there is one Reilly gun 12453 (1862) (the SN is suspect - it could be earlier - possibly 10543 - 1858), a Lefaucheaux forward lever pin-fire which has faint Belgian proofs on it overlain by London proofs. All this is mentioned in the history.

I haven’t a clue how this trade worked, who sourced the tubes, etc. (I had some stuff I started compiling 6 years ago - Tranter's Belgian contacts. .reports on Birmingham Damascus barrel maker delegation visit to Liège - it got lost) But have a feeling there was a lot more going on between London and Liège than people want to admit. For instance, a lot of makers including Purdey and Reilly, advertised and imported Bastin sliding breech actions from Liège in the early 1860’s. I’ve seen references that claim Reilly was importing Liège made revolvers in parts and assembling them in London. In the history I put this as 1880 but it could well have been 1860. The source of these posters information is unknown.

Anyway, these London- Liège connections are worthy of a Doctoral dissertation.

Gene

Last edited by Argo44; 06/02/24 10:23 AM.
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