Another new label:

This is from Holts 2 Jan unsold lots...it's from the case of a pistol:
Lot 2121: A CASED 30-BORE PERCUSSION BELT-PISTOL SIGNED REILLY, MODEL 'SIDEHAMMER BOXLOCK', no visible serial number, with signed octagonal 3 1/2in. barrel, engraved radiused sidehammer action with guarded trigger, chequered bag-shaped grip and captive ramrod, in a later wood case with accessories.



Note the first use of "Reilly" and the experiment with the wavy lines which carried forward to later Reilly labels; The "Gun Maker" font carrying over from the earlier label, and the first experiment with a slanted font "London." It's all pretty "cartoonish"...and the ad says a "later" case so it's possible this was someone's personal art to recreate the label - (if so pretty damned neat) - but I believe it's possible this was a transition label between the "J.C. Reilly" "Removed from Holborn" "business card" label pictured on two guns from 1847 and 1848



....and the new label with the sketch of 502 New Oxford street the earliest of which is found on the case of an 1851 Adams revolver:



I'll be updating the label cheat sheet on p.34...two new labels found in two months....both transition labels that add a lot. There are always things to uncover.

Edit: This from Holts about the label -
"Hi Gene, I do believe it is a homemade drawing which as you say is pretty well done but I dont think genuine."
(signed) Josh Pover, Gun Room, Holt's Auctioneers)
Josh <josh@holtsauctioneers.com>

(yet I keep wondering...might this be EM's original art for his idea of what was to become the Reilly 1849 label? Far fetched...but possible. If objects could talk)


Last edited by Argo44; 01/09/20 10:09 PM.
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