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1841 - The Poetry of a Reilly


- The poem written about Reilly has often been cited. Here it is with a bit of humor - what is it with the English at this time and their love of doggerill?





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1844 - Reilly - military inventor and contract supplicant


- Many writers have commented that the Reilly’s were not innovators and never really took out gun patents. Many have commented that the only patent was on an 1969 explosive bullet. (posted below). Well, JC Reilly sure tried to hawk a mortar and some mortar bombs in 1844. It is indicative of their business sense - they wanted to sell stuff…guns but explosives too and especially to the military for a big military contract:
https://books.google.td/books?id=YBZdAAA...ars&f=false



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1857 - JC Reilly Swan Song -1 (see p. 20)


— Vini Vidi Vici with skull; You’ll notice the two very last surviving guns in the “7000 series” which I believe were numbers reserved for J.C. Reilly the father, 8025 and 8052, both have the inscription “Vini Vidi Vici” with a skull engraved on them. It’s a good guess that these were part of the last 50 guns he ever built and that these were his swan song: “I came, I saw, I conquered” and dust to dust, ashes to ashes. At least it makes a good (and logical) ending. (He retired totally at the end of 1858 and moved to his country house where he died in 1863; the next year the company was named E.M Reilly). (and Terry Buffum, if you have a picture of that inscription and of the rifle, we’d much like to see it for history’s sake. Thanks).

..8025 - Reilly, New Oxford St. London; 13 bore; Rifle; Percussion hammer gun, Muzzle loader (Buffum). (marked Veni, Vidi, Vici)
..8052 - Reilly, New Oxford St., London. 20 bore. Rifle. Percussion hammer gun, muzzle loader. (marked Veni, Vidi, Vici). (8052 pictured below)





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1855-58 - Reilly and Prince etc. - Military Contract attempts


- Prince Patent: As has been widely reported in 1855 the Prince Patent breech-loader was widely hailed as the finest of its kind. Reilly began making Prince patent guns almost immediately. In 1859 12 prominent London gunmakers tried to get Ordinance to reopen the question but were rejected (as reported in C. Blair (ed) 1983, pp. 245-6).

It is a testament to the belief in the design that in 1859, four years after it had first been rejected, a group of prominent London gun makers including Manton, Wilkinson, Samuel Nock, Parker Field, and Tatham petitioned the Board of Ordnance to reconsider their decision.
http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/130153944059/historicalfirearms-frederick-princes

I believe Reilly had to have been amongst the 12 gunmakers making the petition. He was with Prince on several other ventures subsequently and there appears to have been some sort of business understanding amongst them and a few others, including J. Blanch. (Prince created a partnership with the Green Bros which was dissolved in 1859; then Reilly got manufacturing rights to the Green Bros breech loader and trialed in in 1864. etc.)

I cannot find the names of all the gunmakers involved but would like to confirm the hunch. Prince has been subject of a few books and articles if anyone cares to research this including the below:
Prince’s Carbines, Gun’s Review, Nov. 1971, R.J. Wilkinson-Latham

SN 10782 - dated 1858 per dating chart



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1862 - Reilly at London exposition


- Here is Reilly’s advertisement for the 1862 London Exhibition for which he had meticulously prepared. The praise in Bradshaw’s Alphabetical handbook for Sep 1862 (below) might be for this gold Shotgun meant for India, SN 12532: (per the chart above, SN 12532 was numbered in mid 1862 - this is possible validation of the chart and of the gun as being the one in the 1862 exhibition).



https://books.google.com/books?id=mvkHAA...gun&f=false




Last edited by Argo44; 10/20/18 12:24 PM.

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