"Best Guns" is a social, marketing ploy out of London after the turn of the eighteenth century. Partly and partly a connotation of what the maker and commissioner believed to be best design, materials, and sufficient time allocated for no-compromise workmanship.
The phrase does tend to connote a gun stocked to the fences, chopper lump barrels and no through lumps. I think this suits the definition of "London pattern best gun" more than a general definition. Did you not add "SLE" for a reason, or was that oversight?
Best guns prior to that period were known to not be all of those. Agree - even best boxlocks.
This is well-documented for Boss, Purdey, Woodward and H&H. Easy to find examples.
Crossed Chisels will no doubt be along to help us with this non-issue. Hope so - he is always a wealth of knowledge.
