doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com G.E. Lewis?

I've been wanting to buy a good quality English double. It doesn't have to be fancy or a big name but I do want a quality piece as it will be hunted. A friend has offered me a G.E. Lewis 12 bore 2 1/2" (I reload extensively so 2 1/2" ammo won't be an issue) with two sets of barrels, a 30 inch and a 25 inch, for a very reasonable price. Not cheap but reasonable. It looks like a nice gun but I'm not familiar with them. I'm fairly well schooled in most of the bigger name English guns but until he offered me this one I had not heard of them. The barrels are excellent, ring true and the gun is on face. The stock is plain and straight grained with a few character marks but in good shape. I don't have any pictures at this time. Any thoughts? What are your opinions of the G.E. Lewis shotguns.

Across the board the standard of manufacturing of the English gun was in the stratosphere. They weren't building or looking for a price point. They didn't build beaters unless someone beat it into the ground. If that didn't happen to this G.E. Lewis then you got yourself a good one.

I wish I could find my account of an African Game warden, I believe it was in Rhodesia, who was short of funds so was forced to buy a used Alfred Hollis double rifle (ever hear of Alfred Hollis?). During his career he was responsible for culling dangerous rogue elephants that were destroying crops, homes and killing villagers. He went on to describe that each and every encounter was extremely dangerous (I'm thinking 6 tons of pit bull charging toward you) and if the Holllis malfunctioned he would not be here to relay his account.

Like I said, ever hear of an Alfred Hollis? Built in the trade by who I don't know but another obscure English name providing results under the hardest, harshest and deadliest of conditions. Possibly our English brethren will chime in to find that source.

G.E. Lewis was a very respected Birmingham gunmaker. Lewis wasn't a proficient inventer of new things, but they built extremely well finished, robust arms. One of the notable hallmarks of Lewis guns is the use of game scene engraving at a time when others weren't doing it much....this is probably due to the fact that the Lewis's were pretty good engravers and also enjoyed wildlife art which was popular at the time, pretty much the same reason that W&C Scott guns were engraved with game birds, etc. Lewis would build you any type of weapon that you wanted and had the money for. They seemed to be fans of the boxlock action, treble grips & crossbolts, action bolsters & greener type lever work. A lot of Lewis guns you'll come across were built for wild fowling. One notable catch phrase Lewis liked to use on their higher grade guns was "gun of the period".
Here is a somewhat recent discussion on Lewis: http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=316869&page=1

I have a Lewis from the 30's, 2 3/4" and 1 1/4 oz proof from the factory. Sounds like it ought to be a wildfowler . . . but it's actually the other end of the spectrum: 26" barrels, weighs just a tick under 6#. (Needless to say, I won't be shooting 1 1/4 oz loads!) Someone installed a Miller SST. Well-made gun.

If you post the serial # someone will give you the production date. Might be helpful.

Von Lengerke & Detmold were the U.S. agents for Lewis at one point and it is possible that sales records exist. If you purchase the gun you might contact Bob Beach http://www.griffinhowe.com/research-main.cfm

The Royal Armouries museum at Leeds have the records for Lewis. https://www.royalarmouries.org/home Lagopus.....

I quite like GE Lewis guns to work on; they are well made and solid but suffer from all the usual problems of medium quality guns that have been used a lot.
As said above, they nearly always feature some game scene engraving which ranges from the quite nice to 'School of Donald Duck'.
Their damascus barrel are usually unremarkable, using a lot of twist rather than pattern damascus but none the less strong for that and often very thick.
My only criticism would be that they often use the Greener type toplever bolting which uses a very short axle through the top tang. These can wear quite badly although this is not a safety issue and usually only becomes apparent when you strip them for cleaning.
Essentially good solid guns.

This is an example of the "typical" G.E. Lewis fowling boxlock action. Treble grip, Greener lever work and the engraving talked about earlier. This particular example was ordered in Dec of 1905.






A picture of G.E. Lewis III in the company gun room. Taken before WW2.

m. w., there is a classic mistake in Brit/Continental guns 0f trying to associate the gun's Original Quality (OQ) with the maker. The maker's name does have a role in the price of the gun as Brand Value (BV). OQ must be determined independent of BV. It cost Brit gunmakers pretty much the same across the board to produce and retail a gun of given OQ grade. G. E. Lewis, like many "lessor" makers could have gotten out a "best work" gun at any time he was given a commission to do so. Whatever skills, if any, lacking in his own shop were readily available via outworkers known to have "best work" skills. G. E. would have, of course, reserved quality control to him self. It would be no surprise to find a few "best work gems" among his bread and butter more pedestrian work. Most "best work" guns are sidelock ejectors (an aristocratic fashion statement), but there are a few "best work" boxlocks. There are a lot of very good boxlocks out there.

Here is a quick note on valuation. G. E. Lewis has BV level three (BV3). The gun you describe sounds like a third grade boxlock (30-50% good engraving, plain good quality walnut, good polish throughtout); OQ7. I'll assume the gun is in Current Condition level four (heavy use, but no abuse); CC4. BV3-OQ7-CC4 = $1,233. Better current condition and higher original quality grade; BV3-OQ6-CC3 = $2,320.

Hope that helps some.

DDA