""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.""
Further to Rocketman's excellent comments: Neither the literature of the time (considered in toto) nor the purchasing habits of consumers in 19th Century factually support the notion that London was the exclusive province of the "Best Gun" or of best gunmakers in Great Britain. The claim that London holds sole jurisdiction over the term is a 20th Century value-judgement applied retroactively -- one supported by today's used-gun market but not necessarily one that exactly mimics the new- and used-gun market a century or more ago.
This is of course not to downplay London's dominance of that market segment, merely to clarify that "dominance" is not the same as "only."
Last edited by Blackadder; 01/09/08 02:49 PM.
