Beautiful and elegant gun Stephen, as usual.
I thought to go through "The Field" from about 1853 to 1860 to see when each manufacturer began to actually advertise Breech Loaders (which will be a work in progress). Purdey never bothered to advertise that I can see.
Reilly - 04 October 1856:
H.Holland - 20 September 1856 (per above)
Lang -15 May 1858:Lang did not appear deign actually to advertise a breech-loader until 1858 when he allegedly became so fed up with breech-loader "rubbish" being marketed that he decided to make a cheaper work-man's gun rather than the best-quality noble-man's guns he had previously been making.
15 May 1858, "The Field" (adverts for Reilly and Lang)
The sarcastic phrase "instead of being fed-away by interested writers" makes it seem as if the press was as much despised in 1858 as now.
(There were Lang advertisements in summer of 1856 which discussed breech loading guns and rifles; however, it's not clear that he was advertising center-break guns. At the time, breech loading rifles (the Prussian needle gun, Prince-Patent, Terry-Patent, etc., were are the rage to talk about).
09 Aug 1856, "The Field"
J.Blanch - 06 November 1858
Will add more.....
