True that. My take is different. This gun of Lancaster's is made on Beesley's patent. License paid and that is that. Thorn was quite capable of monitoring all the out work without having to give up a share to someone else supervising for him. It's the Money. It still leaves the question:Who had their hands in making this gun? The fun is in tracking these guys down.
You are aware that Lancaster (Thorn) had an actual factory unlike some other makers who merely had a storefront? Lancaster bought the patents from Beesley outright, just like Purdey did. You say "License paid and that is that". What do you mean? A License to me means (now this is in laymans terms) that the owner of the patents is giving their permission to someone else to manufacture that gun as theirs, usually because the owner of the patents is getting compensated for the patents use. I dont think this is the case of the body action self opener, I've never seen a Lancaster body action gun sporting another makers name. Again, I've never seen or heard of a Lancaster back action sidelock "wrist breaker" bearing any other makers name either, I'm sure all of the model A's were built on premise at 151 New Bond St. I dont think we'll ever know for sure who produced the "o" prefixed Body Action Wrist Breaker gun.
I tend to agree with Toby on what he said a couple post ago regarding the agreement between Thorn and Beesely, and the possibility that Beesely was indeed involved in the making of the "O" prefixed body action wrist breakers, how he did it is really anybodys guess but Toby again seems to have the most logical explanation.
Dustin
