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1825 - 1912 - Reilly's business model

Reillys business model from the first days of the firm was clear and spelled out numerous times in numerous ways.
Put out an excellent high-quality gun
Respond with alacrity to orders
Beat everybodys prices.

The poem in the advertisement above claims he could fill a high-quality order in under 30 days while the establishment..the Purdeys, Holland and Hollands, took months and later even years. So how did he do this? How did he fill orders in three weeks for the prices he charged undercutting everyone yet with the exquisite quality and delicate balance that is the Reilly hallmark? Its not for nought that when I first touched the Reilly I bought, the one which started this researchSN 34723, it felt like a rapier and everything else like battle axes. The answer to this question may also answer the question of whether Reilly manufactured his own guns.

A lot has been written about Reilly and others being supplied barrels, actions, etc. in the white from Birmingham. Reilly owners have noted similarities with Westley Richards, Webley, W.C. Scott. One writer noticed that some Reilly actions were identical to those built by Birmingham genius maverick Thomas Brian (from Terry Weilands excellent article Reilly of Oxford, 2014 Gun Digest). Reilly like many London gun makers at the time was not an innovator. Reillys only took out two patents, both military related (one in 1840 for a mortar bomb and one in 1869 for an explosive bullet)(I'll post those some day because I have them). Yet he successfully marketed beautiful guns on the cutting edge and is widely acknowledge as being amongst first three London gun makers to seize onto the LeFracheaux center-break gun concept.

In addressing his business model, here are a few facts:

1). Reilly did not serial number guns he did not build. This has been firmly established by this line. He Serial Numbered about 30,000 guns pretty much chronologically with the breaks noted in 1847 and the off shoot numbering by J.C. Reilly the 7000 series mentioned above. By build he had to have made them.even if he used parts in the rough from others.

2). Reillys (father and son) engraving, from the time he was a jeweller/plateworker is almost immeditately recognizable for its style and quality. Almost exclusively with designs and roses - no animals, dogs, ducks or hunters. And he engraved everything that came in the door, bayonets, swords, Colt, Trantor, Adams revolvers, 1853 Enfields, Martini-Henrys, etc. etc.



3). Reillys stocks were subjects of comments even in his own time and today are almost immediately recognizable. He was one of the first to use French Walnut and to see a Reilly poorly restocked is like looking at a Leonardo poorly framed.



4). In the 1881 census, according to Brown (and I have not seen these census records - so this is secondary sourcing), Reilly claimed to be employing 300 workers which included engravers, finishers and stockers. There has been a lot of hemming and hawing and harrumphing trying to reconcile this figure with a pre-conceived notion that Reilly didnt make guns.

5). Reilly was known to stockpile barrels at least after EMs death.
.........-- On this line Toby Barclay mentioned that he had sold SN 35079, a 12 bore. SxS SLE shotgun. It was numbered circa 1900-1901 yet Toby remarked that the barrels were proofed pre-1896.



..........-- Also per above, Terry Lubzinski's 12 bore is SN 303xx and should have been numbered about 1891, yet the barrel has "Not for Ball" which went out in 1887.



6). Reilly advertised having a shooting range where prospective customers could fire at targets 300 yards away - no one has ever found that range but unlike the anguish about his factory no one seems to question its existence.

May 1851 advertisement relating to the Crystal Palace exposition:


Inevitably a conclusion must be reached that the 1881 census is indeed correct:
1. Reilly stockpiled barrels,
2. stockpiled actions,
3. finished his own guns,
4. stocked the guns himself,
5. and engraved his own guns.
6. The grace and artistry of his guns are his own - but he was aware of this talent too - see the poem above and his immodest mention of art heroes, And by the way the French were tooHere are quotes from French articles at the time claiming that Reillys genius came from his contact with France via rue Scribe.



"Almost all the shooters used English guns of large caliber. We saw in their hands magnificent arms signed Purdey, A & Ch. Lancaster, Grant and certainly E.M. Reilly, that English gun maker who has been established at rue Scribe for two years in Paris itself. The guns of M. Reilly have gained a lot from contact with and a taste for Parisian art, and have acquired a finish, a perfection in wood, an elegance that one does not always find in English made arms...."



"This year I saw at the Game Fair a hammer gun with round action from the 1870's signed by the London gun maker Reilly & Co., of an elegance combined with a delicateness of finish and a solidity of fabrication, which placed it at the level of the best gun of no matter what of the last century,"

Im going to follow-up on this, especially expanding on the question of engraving - because at the time engraving was artisanal; everybody did it and they were not paid a lot for it.

But one thing Reilly owners can do to test this theory is to take a look at the date their barrels were proofed (if they were a Reilly product - they were proofed in London) and compare these dates to the dates the guns were serial numbered (see my chart on page 9 above). Terry Buffum has handled more Reillys than any man alive and Id appreciate his opinion. Harry (HWK) - SXS40 has about 8 of Terrys Reillys dating from 1856 to 1888 and could probably reinforce the theory just by looking in his gun closet.



I want to add this from his 1862 London exposition entry. Reilly guarantees the guns he makes. Later in the 1880's his ads guarantee everything he sells. But this ad is perhaps telling; the 50 yard range was at 315 New Oxford Street:


Last edited by Argo44; 09/11/18 01:18 PM.
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