Many thanks Steve...leave it where it is. The "World's Fair" Expositions of 1851 (Crystal Palace, London), 1855 Paris Universelle, 1862 London, and 1867 Paris are particularly important because everybody who was anybody was there. Reilly, after the 1855 Paris Universelle, in particular targeted these expositions and the medals won were major advertisements.

1855 (where all his goods where sold and many orders were booked - no further information for the moment) and 1867, where he outright won the gold medal, where his triumphs.

Here is Reilly's 1862 exhibit - Note that in 1862, you could order a Best Reilly Muzzleloader with Brazier locks for an extra 6 (Steve Nash mentioned above that Joseph Brazier of Wolverhampton provided actions to gun finishers based on the Lang design - the below Reilly ad, however, in 1862 was for locks for muzzleloaders - for which he was best known):
https://books.google.com/books?id=BJfHM1...ent&f=false



1862 was a disappointment - he meticulously prepared for the Fair but only got a sort of "participation medal." But three things for this Reilly line came out of the exposition:

1) The advertisements in the exposition catalog and the newspaper interviews and publicity before the exposition definitively state he was manufacturing guns at 502 and 315 Oxford Street, allegedly making every piece himself, and was making the guns that he perceived to be salable under patent license.

..........17 Aug 1862 "Bell's Life" - review of guns at the 1862 London World's Fair


..........1862 Exposition catalogue


..........1861 - note the reference to the John Baker cartridge sealing patent in a mid-1861 advertisement.....and note the reference to an underlever "double-grip" system - which seems to indicate Reilly was building Jones U-L at that date:


2) The Identity of at least one of his employees, a young "Mr. McNamara.


3) The description of a gold washed muzzleloader that at least one writer in September 1862 waxed poetic about and which may still exist - SN 12532 (dated on my chart as mid-1862; it is used as a "sanity check" for the accuracy of the chart)
https://books.google.com/books?id=mvkHAA...gun&f=false


http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/e.m.-reilly,-london-a-gilded-and-cased-12-bore-pe-545-c-cbe4d2e8d5

E.M. REILLY, LONDON
A GILDED AND CASED 12-BORE PERCUSSION SPORTING-GUN FOR PRESENTATION, serial no. 12532, 
circa 1855 ([color:#FF0000]wrong[/color]) and for the Indian market, with re-gilded fully fluted 32in. barrels, the top-rib signed 'REILLY 502 NEW OXFORD STREET LONDON' and surrounded by a field of engraved acanthus scrolls, further panels of acanthus scroll-work forwards of the fore-end and at breech, scroll engraved re-gilded top-tang, re-gilded fully acanthus scroll engraved bar action locks signed 'REILLY LONDON', en-suite hammers, re-finished highly figured chequered walnut half-stock (cracked at hand), re-gilded furniture including heel-plate with engraved spur, fully scroll engraved trigger-guard bow and tang, engraved barrel wedge escutcheons and ramrod throat, fluted ramrod pipes and ebony ramrod; TOGETHER WITH its manufacturers walnut presentation case bound on the exterior with pierced and engraved brass mounts with a vacant central shield, the interior lined in embossed red velvet (thinning in places) with gilt borders and details, the inner lid signed in gilt block letters 'E.M. REILLY 502 NEW OXFORD STREET LONDON', the tray compartmented in the English manner and containing the original red morocco leather shot flask with gilt embossed decoration, the possibly original but period powder flask signed 'JAMES DIXON & SONS, SHEFFIELD' and an 'E.M. REILLY' brass wad-punch



But I will say this and I think I can back it up. 1857-1870 was the Hay-Day of Reilly. There is a cockiness about their advertising, their sending zingers at the "establishment" such as Purdey. They for a short time tried to advertise themselves as gun-makers to the Royal family in 1862. They won outright the gold medal in 1867 in Paris, opened a Paris shop; they became gun-maker to Napoleon III, strutted into America. They had great hopes of winning the 1865 breech loading trials with the Green Bros breech loader and 1869 trials with the Reilly-Comblain. All this is documented above.

Last edited by Argo44; 12/04/19 06:48 PM.
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