doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The pinfire game gun

OK, time to keep the thread going.

Gunmaking was not a business conducted in isolation, and it is not surprising that gunmakers often knew each other and knew of each others' work. In the early years of the breech-loader, a prospective maker would learn a lot from examining another's work, and there was certainly a lot of copying in terms of designs and decorative features. Earlier in this thread I wrote about John Blanch and his acquisition of a Beatus Beringer gun, which might have been the inspiration for the earliest lever-over-guard breech-loading guns in Britain. I've also wondered if the underlever fully wrapping around the trigger guard bow (with the interstice filled by an angled projection on the underlever) might relate to the Beringer design and fall into the category of "early" British pinfire forms, like the Lang forward-underlever (though unlike the latter, the former was built into the late 1860s).

Such style of levers appeared first on single-bite actions (with and without the rising stud on the action bar), and on guns with a European influence, like those offered by the Masu Brothers. Argo44 posted a drawing of "Reilly's breech-loader" from 1859, and it appears to have this feature. For those with the patience to scroll backwards, and as a reminder there's a lot to this thread, several guns with the wrap-around underlever (please, does anyone have a better term for this shape of lever-over-guard?) have been shown: a William Moore, page 3; two Harris Hollands, page 5; a Cogswell & Harrison, page 9; a JD Dougall, page 13; Argo44's EM Reilly on page 16, all seeming to take inspiration from Beringer-style guns, such as Tinker's gun shown on page 11. It seems to me that it would be extra work to shape a lever in this way, for a purely aesthetic purpose. Certainly most lever-over-guard levers have a much simpler, and more sinuous shape. Today's gun has this feature, and the maker appears to have a connection to the Blanch family. I wouldn't be surprised if many early builders of breech-loaders were found to have some kind of connection, either professional or social, with Messrs Blanch, Lang or Reilly.

Jabez Bloxham Welch was born in 1786 in Banbury, an Oxfordshire market town located in between Birmingham and London. He was recorded as a gun maker in 1829 in Butchers Row, Banbury. By the 1851 census he was a widower, living with his nephew Thomas Julian Watkins (born 1821 in Leighton Buzzard), also listed as a gun maker. Welch retired in 1852 and Thomas Watkins took over the business. He married Eliza Mortimer (a daughter of one of the famous Mortimer gunmaking families in London), and in 1856 they had a son named Thomas Mortimer Watkins. In 1857 the business moved to 75 High Street.

[Of interest, at the time of the 1861 census Eliza Watkins and her son Thomas Mortimer were recorded visiting with the London gun maker William Blanch (John Blanch's son) and his wife Madaline at 29 Gracechurch Street (the census recorded everyone who happened to be in that household at the time, including visitors); the Blanch gunmaking family was also interconnected with the Mortimer gunmaking family.]

Today's gun is a 12-bore double-bite screw grip rotary under-lever pinfire sporting gun by Thomas Julian Watkins of Banbury, and it has no serial number. The 29 7/8" damascus barrels have London proofs, a maker's mark "Z," and the breech ends have starburst detailing at the pinfire apertures. The back-action locks are signed "T J Watkins" and are decorated with dogs, and the action bar has game scene engraving within ovals on each side, all of which is quite attractive. The fences have raised collars, the hammers are nicely rounded and with flanged noses, the action bar is strengthened with a radius, and, as described earlier, the under-lever fully wraps around the trigger guard bow. Without records it is difficult to date a gun, but by the various features it looks to be mid- to late-1860s in build. This was a quality if plain-actioned gun, a fine offering from a provincial maker known to the London gun making community. The gun is quite worn, the bores have light pitting at the breech, and the gun weighs 7 lb 2 oz.