The Reilly SN chart above (p.17) has been updated with all the caveats - it'll get you close to the year your gun was produced but includes subjective information. It includes changes reflecting 1857 date of JC's retirement vice Dec 1858; July 1885 date of the closure of rue Scribe vice summer 1886, etc.

It's hard for me to post that Reilly production soared to 950 bespoke guns a year in the early 1880's but that's what the serial numbers say. It also makes Reilly's decline in the 1890's more dramatic. As soon as EM died in 1890 it's as if someone forgot to promote the company's wares. Advertisements just disappeared and by 1894, Reilly's guns disappeared from the Pigeon shooting winners' circle in newspaper results as well.

One assumes it was competition from factory mass-produced guns - a lot of UK gun-makers went into decline about this time...but surely a failure in basic marketing had something to do with it too.

The "New Short History of Reilly of London, Gunmaker" (P.17 above) has been also edited. It would be nice to provide hard information on Reilly from about the closure of 16 New Oxford Street in 1898 to bankruptcy in 1912. But a lot of what's known about Reilly comes from advertisements, gun ribs and case trade labels. If these don't exist, there's nothing really more to report until other resources become available. For instance neither the exact date of the 1898 closure of 16 New Oxford St., nor the 1903 move to 295 Oxford can be established so far. Sally hopefully can help.

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1900 - 1912??? - Decline in Reilly quality??
Here are a few posts of Reilly's engraving from the 1890's- through about 1905. There looks to be a marked decline in quality for their middle level guns after about 1900 (high quality guns like Toby's former 35079 appear to still be good quality"). This may be an indication of the troubles the company faced; Bert Reilly just couldn't keep up with the times or with the quality.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .30846 (1889). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33358 (1895). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33619 (1895)


. . . . . . . . .34442 (1897). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34723 (1898). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34865 (1899)



Best Gun (formerly Toby Barclay's) 35079 (1900)


. . . . . . . . . . . . . .1901-1905 engraving


Last edited by Argo44; 10/25/18 02:43 PM.
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