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Great information is turning up, thanks to all the posters. The time of the early breech-loaders is surprisingly complex, considering it is mostly brushed over in so many gun history books. The conventional wisdom has been that you had in neat chronological order flint, then percussion, then the pinfire (if mentioned at all), then everyone happily jumped on the centre-fire bandwagon. The truth was quite messy, with many competing cartridge systems and gun designs happening concurrently, in Britain and mainland Europe. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, the pinfire system rose to the pinnacle of fashion in Britain, and for the briefest time these were the best sporting guns in the world, desired over all others by the wealthy and powerful.

So, for today, let's look at some top offerings, a Holland, and a Holland.

Even a big London name had to have started somewhere. Typically, a firm started small around the output of one gunmaker, a few workers, and perhaps an apprentice or two, gradually building a reputation for putting up fine guns. Of course, the barrels, locks and assorted furniture would come from elsewhere, usually Birmingham and the "black country" ironworks, and the actioning, fitting and finishing done in the London premises or by skilled outworkers.

Towards the end of the 19th century many Holland & Holland guns were made by other makers, such as Webley & Scott, with the H&H name added. But that's much later than the period I'm interested in. I'm concerned with the period when Harris Holland made pinfires.

Harris John Holland set up in business as a tobacconist in 1835 at 9 King Street, Holborn, London. He was also a keen rifle shot and an enthusiast of live-pigeon shooting. During the 1840s he became involved in dealing in guns as well, and by 1850 he was a full-time gunmaker. The business moved to 98 New Bond Street in 1858, and his nephew, Henry William Holland, was taken on as an apprentice in 1860 for the usual seven-year term. Henry William became a partner in the business at the end of his apprenticeship in 1867. Harris John Holland retired in 1875, and in 1876 the name of the firm was changed to Holland & Holland, and much has been written about the firm and the wonderful H&H guns since then.

Harris Holland started making breech-loaders in 1857, when he made six of them. In 1858 he made 14, and in 1859 he doubled his output to 28 breech-loading guns. Production increased very gradually after that, averaging some 30-40 breech-loading sporting guns a year. In 1865 he built 66 breech-loaders, and by comparison only 19 percussion-cap guns. All of the breech-loaders up to this point were pinfires, as Harris Holland made his first centre-fire gun in 1866.

If these numbers seem low, they were actually comparable to the other top makers of the day, such as Boss & Co., Purdey, etc., and smaller firms could be making far fewer. This is why finding any early breech-loader in its original configuration is exciting, and if by one of the top makers, even more so. The total numbers produced were very low compared with later true "factory" output in the 1880s and later (and sporting arms production was always dwarfed by military contracts). So, any Harris Holland pinfire is a rare find. Holland pinfires are rare enough that no 1850s-1860s pinfires are illustrated in "The Shooting Field", H&H's own book on the firm by Peter King published in 1990, or in Donald Dallas's fine history, "Holland & Holland, The Royal Gunmaker", published in 2003.

Gun number 824 is a 12-bore single-bite rotary-underlever sporting gun with back-action locks, made in 1861 for Alan James Gulston of Dirleton and Derwydd, Wales, one of the largest landowners at the time. In the 1861 census A. J. Gulston was listed as 43 years of age. As is typical for early breech-loaders the fences are quite thin. The 30 1/8" damascus barrels, signed "H. Holland 98 New Bond St London" on the top rib and stamped "H.H" on the under rib, still have mirror bores. Interestingly the gun has a mechanical grip safety, a hold-over from percussion guns that I've only encountered on the earliest British pinfires. Also interesting is the concave "pinched" underlever finial. The gun weighs 7 lb 1 oz.

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Gun number 963-A (possibly one of a pair?) is a 12-bore double-bite rotary-underlever pinfire sporting gun with back-action locks, made in 1863. The 29 3/4" damascus barrels, also signed "H. Holland 98 New Bond St London" on the top rib and stamped "H.H" on the under rib, have bores that are slightly pitted. Unfortunately Holland's records for the years 1860-64 are missing and the original owner cannot be traced, even with a clear family crest on the stock escutcheon (out of a ducal coronet, a wolf's head proper, which was used by several families such as Freeman, Seale, Ward, West and Wolseley). There is still much original colour on the trigger guard bow, heel-plate and fore-end iron, though the colour has faded elsewhere. On this gun the underlever finial is left smooth, like the Niebour. The gun weighs 6 lb 15 oz.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
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I've only ever seen one other Holland pinfire illustrated, in Geoffrey Boothroyd's Sidelocks & Boxlocks, published in 1991. I can't be certain, but that illustration might be of gun number 963-A, before it fell into my hands.

Last edited by Steve Nash; 02/03/21 04:12 PM.
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Beautiful guns. Do we see an early rendition of the Holland style of engraving in #824 ? Engraving with the background taken out was not the norm.
A friend had an H. Holland breechloader, centerfire. As I recall the gun was in the 500 serial range , and at the time it was one of the earliest serial numbers found. It was a conversion , and a fun shooter in our local Nimrod Classic vintage gun shoot. I believe the serial number was one of the missing from the H. Holland books.

I should also add that the guns being in their cases is really important. Notice the loading tools and accessories. It was a wonderful period for "new" tools, unrelated to muzzleloaders.

Last edited by Daryl Hallquist; 07/12/20 11:46 AM.
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That`ll be a double wow ! for the Hollands .....

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Be still my heart! Those Holland’s could easily entice me to have a go with oinfires!


When an old man dies a library burns to the ground. (Old African proverb)
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What a pair of guns!!! What history! Stephen, you are truly a collector and preserver. Can't wait to see more. Assume the double-bite 963-A uses a Jones under-lever. If Harris John Holland did not build those actions or create barrels with a lump, wondering who in London did.

Last edited by Argo44; 07/12/20 08:10 PM.

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Browsing through"The Field" for 1856, I came upon this H. Holland advertisement for 20 September 1856. It appeared regularly in "The Field" for the rest of the year. It's within two weeks of Reilly's first ad for breech loading shotguns. I would assume that if Haris Holland advertised such a gun in Sep 1856, he could have made it.

I'm wondering if one or two of those six 1857 H.Holland made breech-loaders came about from this advertisement? Were the 1857 breech-loaders counted per SN - i.e. recorded when ordered? Or when delivered?

20 September 1856, "The Field."


The Kufahl breech-loader mentioned by H. Holland in the ad is really a version of the Prussian Army Dreyse Needle gun adopted by Prussia in 1848. Later, Sears patented it in England in 1859 with permission from Kufahl. Interesting that M. Holland was making rifles under license in 1856. Apparently Reilly wasn't the only London maker pushing advanced breech-loaders at this time. But Reilly favored the Prince and Terry Patent guns.

https://books.google.com/books?id=_S0xAQ...der&f=false

Last edited by Argo44; 07/15/20 02:26 PM.

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That Field advertisement is a great find, Gene. Contemporary advertisements are such a great window on the times, and advertising really blossomed in the Victorian period. I would like to know what a ÂŁ10 Holland gun looked like!

In case anyone was keeping track, all the pinfires I've shown so far have back-action locks. These predominate amongst pinfires, but bar locks were used as well. And so far I've mostly shown single-bite underlever guns (and a few double-bite actions), all inert. The rising stud on the action bar found in the early Lang-type actions did assist in partly opening the barrels and in partly closing the lever on the return journey, without the use of springs. Lefaucheux guns accomplished the same opening/closing assistance with a small angled stud on the barrels, a simpler solution. Snap-actions and spring-assisted actions are coming up next, but before I do so, I'd like to cover one last single-bite underlever gun, to show that they were still in use while other actions became prevalent. It is a bar-lock gun by Joseph Lang.

The IGC Database tells us that Joseph Lang started his apprenticeship in 1812 when he was 14 years old, to William Henry Wilson or Alexander Wilson, at Wilson's Gun and Pistol Warehouse at 1 Vigo Lane, London. Lang became manager of William Henry Wilson's gun dealing business at some time, probably in about 1820, when he would have been 21 years old. By 1823 Lang started to trade as "Joseph Lang, Gun and Pistol Repository" at 7 Haymarket. In May 1826 Lang bought the bankrupt stock of Joseph Manton, and in September 1826 he again advertised the fact that he was the only gun dealer in London who did not deal in "Birmingham and other Country-made guns", an interesting insight into the London trade at the time. In 1828 Joseph Lang married James Purdey's daughter Eliza, further cementing his links with the family. At that time Lang described himself as a gun maker, and in 1852 the firm moved to 22 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, the year before he started making/marketing his pinfire gun.

Lang's pinfire guns might have been slow to attract attention in Britain, but he achieved acclaim and popularity in France, and Lang was given a First Class Medal at the 1855 Paris Exhibition for the quality of the workmanship of his pinfire guns. He was also given a medal at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, again for his pinfire guns. While Lang was appointed gun maker to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia (grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia), he never received a royal appointment in his home country. On 21 December 1868 Joseph Lang died, aged 71. The name of the business did not change until 1874, when it became Joseph Lang & Son, rather a long time after the fact. There were a number of subsequent changes in ownership and name, too many to include here, and the firm continues today under the name Atkin Grant & Lang.

When Henry Jones's patent for the double-bite screw grip action lapsed in September 1862, any maker could build it royalty-free, and they did so in ever increasing numbers. The double-bite action was definitely stronger than the earlier single-bite design, but the single-bite action was certainly strong enough for the black powder cartridges of the period, and some makers continued to make effective use of single-bite designs. Today's gun is a good example of this, a 12-bore single-bite rotary underlever sporting gun, serial number 3245, made in 1867 for J. M. Hasel Esq. (delivered on 7 August). The 29 7/8" damascus barrels have London proofs, the top rib is signed "J. Lang 22 Cockspur Street London," and the bar-action locks are signed "J. Lang." Perhaps Lang continued to make single-bite guns on the premise they were sufficiently strong. Being a gun with bar locks from a renowned maker, this was hardly a cheap gun, but without seeing more examples of Lang pinfires it is impossible to know if this is a typical Lang gun for 1867 or not. This particular gun has seen a lot of use, it has a broken hammer screw and a broken cross-key, and the bores are pitted. A later owner ("Gammon") stamped their name on the stock. It weighs 6 lb 12 oz.

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Last edited by Steve Nash; 02/03/21 04:14 PM.
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Beautiful and elegant gun Stephen, as usual.

I thought to go through "The Field" from about 1853 to 1860 to see when each manufacturer began to actually advertise Breech Loaders (which will be a work in progress). Purdey never bothered to advertise that I can see.

Reilly - 04 October 1856:
H.Holland - 20 September 1856
(per above)

Lang -15 May 1858:
Lang did not appear deign actually to advertise a breech-loader until 1858 when he allegedly became so fed up with breech-loader "rubbish" being marketed that he decided to make a cheaper work-man's gun rather than the best-quality noble-man's guns he had previously been making.
15 May 1858, "The Field" (adverts for Reilly and Lang)

The sarcastic phrase "instead of being fed-away by interested writers" makes it seem as if the press was as much despised in 1858 as now.

(There were Lang advertisements in summer of 1856 which discussed breech loading guns and rifles; however, it's not clear that he was advertising center-break guns. At the time, breech loading rifles (the Prussian needle gun, Prince-Patent, Terry-Patent, etc., were are the rage to talk about).
09 Aug 1856, "The Field"


J.Blanch - 06 November 1858


Will add more.....

Last edited by Argo44; 07/14/20 10:14 AM.

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The rotary underlever is a strong action, no error, but imagine if gunmakers/inventors hadn't had the urge to come up with something better... Thankfully that was far from the case. Snap-actions allowed the gun to be closed and bolted in one motion, with that satisfying "clunk." Not surprisingly, many shooters of the day opposed this development quite vociferously, fearful that springs would fail at inopportune moments, or that such designs would not be strong enough to withstand the jolt of firing, or be unnecessary complications -- simpler was better, and the interrupted-screw underlever was certainly simple. There is a certain truth to this, and some of the early snap-actions were hardly robust or all that easy to use. We know the Purdey sliding underbolt with the Scott spindle eventually "won" in the end and became the standard form, but there were quite a few inventions along the way, including some that could be argued were better or easier to use than the Purdey-Scott arrangement.

The advantage of a snap-action is speed, and in the 1850s and early 1860s speed was something no one needed, beyond the tremendous advantage conveyed by the breech-loader over the muzzle-loader. Two shots at a covey was the most anyone expected, hence the double gun. To be able to un-load with a pull of the cartridge pin and re-load with ready-made cartridges was what the breech-loader offered, and to do so safely and neatly was wondrous enough. The fact of having to use one's hand to open or close the underlever was not overly awkward, and for walked-up shooting, the opportunities on game were few, as they are today. (To this day I don't see the need for an ejector gun outside of driven-bird shoots and maybe clay sports, but that might just be me.)

As with almost all important gun inventions, the French were there first. François Eugène Schneider came up with the first snap underlever, patented in October 1860, and acquired by G. H. Daw in 1861 and immediately improved, for the Daw centre-fire breech-loader that first appeared in late 1861. Thomas Horsley was next with a spring-tensioned trigger-guard lever in February 1862. Joseph Needham patented his snap sidelever in May 1862, and the first toplever snap action was Westley Richards' pull-lever of September 1862. Then came J.W.P. Field's snap underlever patented in December 1862, followed by James Purdey who patented his famous double-bite snap action in May 1863, with a sliding underbolt linked to a peculiar thumb-operated lever in the trigger guard. Inventions still flourished, with Thomas Horsley coming up with his sliding toplever patented in October 1863, Edward Harrison (of Cogswell & Harrison) with a forward underlever snap action in February 1864, William Powell patented his toplever snap action in May 1864, and Stephen & Joseph Law patented their side-lever snap action in May 1865. Then, Purdey married his double-bite action with W. M. Scott's toplever (which Scott patented in October 1865), narrowly edging out John Croft's snap toplever patented in April 1866. While the best of these actions stayed in use into modern times (the Powell and Westley Richards in particular), most disappeared over time and the strong and efficient Purdey sliding underbolt and Scott toplever spindle became the standard.

Sadly I don't have a Daw action to show, and I've never seen a Horsley trigger-guard lever action. But I'll be posting the other actions, in roughly chronological order, starting with the Joseph Needham Patent No 1544 of May 1862, on a Blissett gun.

John Blissett was a London gunmaker and retailer on London's High Holborn street. He started his business in 1833, and he obtained a few patents for minor inventions. His son William was recorded as a gunmaker in the 1861 census, and I presume he apprenticed under his father. In 1866 the name of the firm was changed to John Blissett and Son. John Blissett died in 1872, and the business ceased altogether in 1883. Blissett built guns, but the firm was also a repository -- selling second-hand guns of other makers. Not everyone had the money for a bespoke gun.

The gun is a 12-bore, number 4097, and the action is a Joseph Needham patent rotating bolt single-bite snap action, with self-half-cocking. The elegant side-lever releases the barrels and raises the hammers to half-cock. With the typical Jones underlever the hammers have to be pulled back manually before the lever can be swung and the gun opened. With the Needham action the same can be done in one natural motion, and the gun can be snapped shut. With the new and growing sport of driven bird shoots, a fast-acting gun was a decided advantage. The Needham action was very popular, and appeared on the guns of many makers. The barrels are 29 3/4", and have been re-browned.

The Blissett gun is a bar-in-wood design, to my eyes the most elegant pattern for a breech-loading gun. Wood predominates which makes for a beautiful gun, but the lack of metal is a nightmare for strength and lasting wear, successful bar-in-wood guns are engineering feats that demand admiration. The Needham action is further peculiar in that the hinge pin is part of the mechanism for disassembling the gun. The hinge pin is pushed out with a fingertip, and it remains captive. The barrels and still-attached fore-end can be then removed. While it seems counter-intuitive to have a slender hinge pin, the action must have been strong, judging from its popularity. The downward-turning lever is on the right side, and on the left can be seen a small cam which lifts the hammers when the lever is depressed. The gun, now well worn, is beautifully engraved with foliate scroll, and retrievers on the lock plates and trigger guard bow. The bar locks are signed "John Blissett London" and the top rib signed "John Blissett, 322 High Holborn, London."

Blissett stressed price in his advertising, and Blissett guns I've seen are well-made and of moderate quality -- not high-end, but not lowest-quality either. His clientele must have been varied, because the Needham gun would likely have been one of his most expensive offerings. The action bears a Needham silver poinçon and patent use number 171, which indicates it is the 171st action Needham built or authorized. Considering its popularity, this helps date the gun to around 1863, fairly early in terms of Needham actions. The gun weighs a svelte 6 lb 11 oz, and the barrels still have mirror bores.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
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[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Last edited by Steve Nash; 09/28/23 06:02 PM. Reason: Name correction
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Interesting locking developments. Below are pics of a Joseph Smith [I think it may be his patent] that is quite similar to the Needham mentioned in Mr. Nash's post above.






Last edited by Daryl Hallquist; 07/14/20 11:31 AM.
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