Years ago a cased Wm. Evans sidelock passed through my hands to Ian Nixon a member of this board.

This one, on the other hand, I'm keeping: a 1901 Wm Evans full rose and scroll boxlock with original condition - #56XX







Thanks to this board and all who, over the years, taught me about shotguns and encouraged my pursuit old double guns. Cheers!

Beautiful that is for sure, well done on the pick up !

Beautifully executed boxlock! Most likely from the early era of those guns. Can you tell us more about it?

Yes, there is an interesting story about how the metal work remained in that high a condition. The serial number # 56XX, dates the firearm around 1901.



The shotgun has a beautifully figured dark walnut that was dropped on the toe of the butt early in its life. I suspect that the shotgun was a gift or heirloom that was kept for an extended period of time in that broken and unused state.

The wrist has since been expertly repaired by a craftsman of the highest order. There are five wood pins hidden throughout wrist and at the butt that can seen if you really look for them.

I purchased the firearm based on the condition of the barrels and the receiver at well below market price. It's really hard to find working shotguns with straight and clean screws of this age. Also, I truly appreciate the workmanship that went into restoring this piece to a fully functioning, working firearm.

A flat of Kent Elite 2 1/2" 3/4oz, # 8s are on order and pattern very well out of these 28" barrels choked SK and IC.

Williams Evans retains their original order books. If you write to them...for a small fee they'll send you the order book entries. See the below line on my wife's William Evans.

https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=475388&page=all

I noted that the conversation went dead when the Evans was understood not to be a pristine, 120 year old virgin piece, but rather was once a very broken item. There are two wood dowels and three pins visible along the right side of this gun stock.



Please give me a moment to give you my perspective. I once had the privilege of watching a highly regarded craftsman, Arthur Troth repair a 1899 Savage rifle one Canadian morning that had also been broken at the wrist. When Arthur snapped the remaining slivers of wood that held the stock together my heart stopped. I bit my lip when he broke the bent metal of the butt plate clean as a whistle. Conversely, when he pinned the pieces back together again with hidden dowels and metal rods to reinforce the area, I marvelled. I was watching a master at his craft with numerous areas of expertise. After he touched up the points of checkering and blended in the new finish with the century old varnish to cover his practiced hand, I began to get a glimpse of the alchemy I had witnessed.

Similarly, seeing a Japanese master practice the art of "kintsugi", the repairing the treasured rice bowl as it were, leaves me in awe. I am a man climbing in years, of limited means but with deep appreciation of great workmanship from another age.

Thus I'm thrilled to own an example of a working firearm from a bygone age that is not only an example of the British high art of gun-making but hides the expertise of the master gun restorer. The pristine ones can remain unfired in collections and museums. This one is going bird hunting!

Original condition is in the eye of the beholder.

The late Thad Scott told me all the old English guns were color cased to protect wear to the metal and the engraving....so that coined/polished reciever and blued action plate with blued screws along with the blued top lever is s dead give away the metal was redone.

Very nice piece!

Thank you. That explains why all the older English shotguns sold by this one dealer here in Canada have blued action plates - all have been redone as a matter of course.

Cheers!

I love how William Evans signed his pieces "from Purdey's". I too shoot an early English boxlock (circa 1905) on game. For the money, they are an unbeatable value. Long, light and lovely! Lethal, beautiful and highly effective, in the early 20th century, boxlocks were marketed as "best" guns and received lots of attention from their makers. Engraving and wood were top-notch and many were made as pairs. By the 30s their "best" status devolved a bit (folks figured out how little time it took to create them, as compared to sidelocks) and they became more utilitarian. Still....for weight and balance, fit and finish, ease of carry afield, and dependable function you'll be hard pressed to find anything better to actually hunt with. The thin and beautiful wrists on many of these guns are a concern, so proper ammunition is a must (I'm a huge RST fan). Properly repaired and then reasonably cared for, I should think that it will outlast several owners after you. The screws on the back of the action near the top of the stock are indicative of intercepting sears. Later versions dispensed with this feature as the added time and cost (& genuine necessity) weren't considered reasonable (because of the substantial nature of the action sears, boxlocks seldom jar loose enough to accidently fire). You didn't mention weight or chambering, so I'm assuming 28 tubes, ~6 1/2 lbs and 2 1/2 chambers. Many that have found themselves over here (from "Old Blighty") have been opened to 2 3/4-inch (my 16 has and was even proofed for that). However, don't be tempted to use it with over-the-counter 2 3/4-inch ammo, or even high-volume shooting. These are game guns, period. Hunt with it and treasure it for what it is, 100-plus year old art that is still doing the job it was designed to do.

Well Joe, unfortunately Thad Scott was wrong. Gun furniture was rarely case colored. Parts that were traditionally blacked would be stuff like top levers, floor plates, trigger guards, for-end buttons, some pins, etc.
Parts that were hardened would be frames, trigger plates, fore end irons, lock plates (on sidelocks & ornamental).
There are exceptions to the rule though.

This could get interesting? I see lots of early continental guns left in the white(action) but not so much In Britain? Usually I can find traces of cch on action flats or on protected part of forend iron? What say you guys?

Color cased hardening wasn't used for appearances so-much as it was used to temper the skin of the steel used in an action body and various parts. The metallurgy of the time required it as much as anything else. We see it now as "beautiful" but it was arguably all they had to make the gun durable for the job at hand. LeFusil is exactly right, the blued parts on this Evens were likely blued originally as well. In the intervening years (all 120 of 'em!) it seems unlikely that the gun hasn't seen some form of maintenance work to keep it in order. Routinely, the good and better English guns were annually sent back to their makers for yearly cleaning and maintenance. Since this is a London-sourced gun (not likely made there, but otherwise immaterial) in it's early life, it should have received several such treatments. Over it's lifetime...who knows? Post WW1 (or even WW2), maybe not so-much. Clearly not much chance of that since it left England. Any importer marks or proof marks on it? Mine was reproved in something like 1999 in London before it went overseas (lots of that going on then).

The Evans was purchased from an importer recently, in June 2021, who routinely brings quantities of European and English firearms into Canada. There are only one set of proofs marks, all London Proof-house stampings, from the period for 1 1/8th ounce loads to the best of my knowledge.



To further clarify for HomelessJoe - the the receiver is a dull grey case coloured finish, not polished nor a coin finish.

No matter, it should make one heck of a great ruffed grouse gun! I'm assuming you're chasing them in Canada as well?

Yes, in ON and a second house in NB on the upper Mirimichi River which is on the Atlantic Flyway of the woodcock migration. With Jack my four year old English setter at my side:

If I were a betting man my money would be on Thad being correct and frAnk getting the story wrong. Thad was extremely knowledgeable and had an extensive collection of fine English rifles. I just sold a spectacular Rigby .577 falling block that Thad owned, he knew good guns well.

The "dull, grey, case-colored finish" that Olgrouser refers to is very likely to be what remains after 120-years (115 in this case) of service. The much-harder blued components remain very much as they were, but the case-hardened metal has worn and softened to a dull silver, with hints of color remaining in the deeper parts of the engraving and perhaps some of the more-protected metal under the forend. I have come to expect it, especially on a workhorse such as this gun. You can have a gun like this refinished by re-case coloring and rebluing the furniture, but why? When I see a gun like this one redone in that fashion (tarted-up?), I immediately wonder if there were issues that are being concealed. Even with proper care over the years, good, honest wear is to be expected and even...appreciated.








Note the absence of drop points and intercepting sear pins on this gun, and only 5 years "newer" than your Evans. Most likely evidence of this Birmingham sourced W. Richards being considered a "good" gun at the time, with the London-sourced Evans being a "best" gun.

Sounds to me both saying about the same thing. Joe just called it a receiver. Both said action is cch on these guns. Small parts may or may not have been blued in various ways. Any way, great guns and a very good looking setter! Impressive.thanks for sharing pics.

That’s a neat old gun. Think of how hard it would have been to engrave that gun. In this day and age, it would cost a bunch for that engraving. You could have the furniture and floor plate ‘picked up’ if you wanted and pick up the screws a little (it appears to have been re-blued over, and hence sort of dull, but then these photos sometimes kind of lie), or jut leave it be. I would, for sure, leave the action alone. Nice old gun.

On another site a jewelry engraver estimated 24 hours of work time to complete the engraving job which he stated he would bid about 10K to complete today.

Me? I'm going to order a leather pad to increase the LOP and then just go out and shoot it, wipe it down and appreciate the workmanship in the off season.

Thank you all for your input, cheers!

The engraving back in 1900 cost virtually nothing. A few quotes from Bushveld, engraver in situ expert here, and the Reilly line:

Let me repost this from the Reilly line: Interesting thoughts: (Bushvelt, are you Highvelt?)

this is an interesting comment from the site "Engravers Cafe" on engravers from the 19th century by a poster "Highveldt," which is relevant to the above discussion on Reilly finishing his own guns. It was a comment on Terry Weiland's article on engraving in which Terry sort of said engraving was really used as a type of "stove paint."

https://books.google.td/books?id=de9XBAA...int&f=false

The chat was funny but very informative:
http://www.engraverscafe.com/archive/index.php/t-10485.html?s=cfbe6b81099c03ea2457b7cbdbf3f47e

Engraving is like....stove paint? I don't think that is what he said. Who knows what a so called gun writer ever means, but here is what he said: "The truth is, a bulino-engraved gun will never look as good as the day it comes out of its protective box. Every scratch and bump will deface the engraving until it looks like a flyspecked lithograph in a cheap saloon. At which point a coat of stove paint might not be a bad idea."

I do not care much for Mr. Weiland's writings, even though I have some of his books. Weiland quotes some of Mr. Greener's opinions about the gun trade in this article--a person I do not think I would have liked in his day. Although Mr. Greener was not found guilty of stealing the Anson & Deeley action design in court, many tradesmen of his day as well as I in this day think that he did steal it.

Weiland raises a point about the changes in valuation of engraving on a gun in UK. I am a English gun restorer and only a learner engraver (in order to repair some engraving on guns I restore). Engraving and engravers were just another craft/trade in the time of the E.M. Riley shotgun Weiland references. For example: E.J. Churchill sends a note and a set of barrels over to the excellent engraver Mr. Sumner on the morning of March 18, 1904 with the note reading: "Barrels of 1398 (gun number) To name (engrave the Churchill name and address), rough rib & engrave it these must be here tonight as they have to be blacked & go away tomorrow morning certain. Please Oblige; signed E.J. Churchill" From this note we can assume the Barrel blacker worked all night to get the barrels blacked for the customer gun to be shipped, as it usually takes 5 or 6 blacking cycles for a barrel to be completed--the blacker probably did not finish until late the next day.

In most shops, including the London best shops of Purdey, Holland, Boss, Stephen Grant and so forth engravers earned about the same as a head barrel maker, stocker and actioner. In 1875 Freedrick Beesley (later inventor of the Beesley spring opener action and which has been used by Purdey ever since they purchased the rights from Beesley in 1880) made 4 pounds six pence for the month, while J. Mace Sr., Engraver made about the same. During the same month J. Lucas, Purdey's famous engraver who developed the Purdey house style of engraving made the astounding amount of 8 pounds---This was twice the amount of wages to paid to any other Purdey craftsman.

In March 1936 at Purdey's J. Lovett, Engraver was paid 3 pounds, 8 shilling and 4 pence, while the famous Purdey actioner Ernest D. Lawrence was paid 3 pounds, 5 shillings.

However at the end of November 1952 Ernest D. Lawrence was earning 12 pounds, 9 shillings as an actioner and the young apprentice Ken Hunt, Engraver earned 3 pounds 5 shillings.

We all should rejoice that the demand in best quality English, Italian, German, Belguim and other shotguns (primarily demand driven by American buyers) has changed the fate and earnings of not only engravers, but the skilled gunmaker trades.

These are just some rambling thoughts of an old man who loves fine guns, mostly fine English guns.

Congrats on the nice William Evans! I have 16 gauge and 12 gauge William Evans and I love them both. Both are light weight, nicely engraved guns and are a joy to handle. By far my favorite guns for chasing grouse, woodcock and wild pheasants. Enjoy!

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...-quot-.cfm?gun_id=102010609&cdn_bp=1

say you saw it here, so dave gits paid...

LMAO!

Did you ever consider the reason guns were engraved? Was it to decorate them, or did it have a more practical purpose. I was told engraving was done to breakup the surface smooth area and help hold oil on the surface to protect the gun. Looking at the number of bores which have been honed to death to get rid of pitting and rust in general I can see that this had a real value. The decorative beauty of engraving I think was more of a after thought.

No merit to that theory imo. A highly polished surface is more resistant to corrosion, as is a hardened one. Bores were also subject to corrosive elements, in-the-white, most not as highly polished as one would think, and relatively soft.

So who made Wm Evans guns? WCScott, or assorted outworkers, or both depending on the circumstances? I understand Wm Evans was employed by Purdey, and he leveraged that status over Purdey’s objections. Could Evans make a gun from soup to nuts or was he more of a retailer with limited manufacturing capability?

From what I have read over the years, Evans bought completed guns from Birmingham and finished them off in their shop in London.
I owned 2 Evans sidelocks, and both had London proofmarks so it makes sense

Evans was capable of making a complete gun.

His use of Purdey in his advertisements was no different than the first Purdey advertising he was from Mantons

Being a cynic I have always wondered what was the hold that Wm Evans had over Purdey because Purdey where renowned to enter litigation with any one that came close to using a Purdey looking part on one of their guns, but their name Wm Evens put this on his guns. It must have been a serious secret that Evens had. Or is it just my cynical thinking.

the gun I referenced above, made circa 1915, has no purdy markings...

Damascus, I understand that Purdey did challenge it until it was pointed out to them that early Purdey guns were marked 'Purdey from Manton'. I was looking at a muzzle loading gun by Alden & Smith marked 'From Manton' the other week. Seems that it was the practice to boast their lineage. I think Evans just worked in the Purdey shop and all his guns were made in the wider trade when he went alone. Lagopus.....

Argo spot on