doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com E.M. Reilly; History; Chronology; Serial Numbers

Following will begin to lay out circumstantial evidence that Reilly made guns. I've accumulated hundreds of documents. But for starters, here is the year 1864 and the Reilly manufacture of Green Brothers breech loaders. this was mentioned in a post on page 12 above - no one seems to have read it so this is a repeat going into more detail (there's more but this should suffice to make a point).

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1864 - Reilly manufactures the Green Bros Breech-loader

Reilly had been heavily involved in promoting breech loaders since 1851 London Crystal Palace World's Fair. In 1855 after the 1855 Paris Universelle, his labels changed to advertise both "Fusils a Bascule" (French for center-break guns) on the Lefaucheaux principal) and "Improved breech loaders."



There was more to this than just saying, "ok, now we're going to make breech loaders." Here part of the obituary of William Blanch, who was connected to JC and EM Reilly for many years, which explains who were the pioneers in UK for center break guns, and what were the problems they faced.

"But he had the more arduous task of teaching this men how to make the new gun. The barrel maker had to be instructed how to make the lump instead of the screw breech-plug. The percussionier had to be broken in to the task of making actions on Lefaucheaux's system. Everything was new..."

(By the way, the Blanch records were lost to a Zepplin bomb raid).



Reilly was among the group of English gun makers who urged Ordinance to reopen the trials for the Prince breech-loader in 1858-59 and was one of several manufacturers who were authorized to produce the Prince breech loader (two Prince breech loaders manufactured and serial numbered by Reilly exist - see chart).

In Feb 1862 the Green Brothers, who had been in partnership with Prince - partnership dissolved in 1859 - took out a patent for a new breech loader. EM Reilly, who had a relationship with the Green Brothers obtained manufacturing rights to the Green Brothers breech loader. Ordinance was inching towards a trial for a replacement for the .577 Enfield rifle-musket muzzle-loader as arguments raged about the pros and cons of breech-loaders vs. muzzle-loaders in the London Press.. The Prussian invasion of Denmark on 1 Feb 1864 and the astonishing initial success of the Prussian Dreyse needle gun, forced Ordinance's hand with pressure also being applied by the English press and UK gun makers.

Reilly began manufacturing Green Brothers breech loaders in Jan-March 1864. Here is one of the very first....use #23, manufactured by Reilly and serial numbered 13333, on the gun is E.M Reilly & Co., 502 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON.



Here are a few of the articles in the English press about the Green Bros invention and Reilly's manufacture of the gun which began in early 1864:

1). Volunteer Services Gazette, of 12 March 1864:





2). 04 April 1864, London Daily News:



3). 28 Jul 1864, Morning Post - a report on the beginning of breech loading trials...and first mention of the Snider, which wound up beating out the Green Bros and Reilly for the contract as UK's interim breech loader:



4). Here are a couple of the hundreds of Reilly ads run during 1864...he was not shy in promoting this gun...millions of pounds in government contracts were at stake. And you see again the consistent promotion of his testing facility at 315 Oxford Street.

London Daily News, 24 April 1864

London Daily News, 26 Nov 1864