Hmmm. I'm now wondering if I've misunderstood the subject of royal warrants all along. Argo44's latest addition to his Reilly thread (https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=436538&page=50) brings up the matter of whether a maker who sold their wares to a member of the/a royal family could correctly describe themselves as "Maker to His Highness Etc Etc Etc", as one sees printed on gun case labels or inscribed on gun ribs. I'm now wondering if this is a separate matter than that of royal warrants of appointment, which gives the holder the official right to state "By appointment to HRH Etc Etc Etc" in their advertising and literature. I've long assumed this was one and the same, but now I question this assumption, as this latter phrase was, to my knowledge, not used by any British gunmakers in the 1850s and 1860s, yet it was in use in British commerce well before then. And what justifies the use of the term "Maker to..."? One gun? Several? It is not like these are perishable items, or goods that are constantly replenished!

I've not been able to track down a list of royal warrants officially issued in the mid-Victorian period against which a list of gunmakers associated with royal patronage could be compared. About 2,000 royal warrants were granted to a wide variety of tradesmen during the long reign of Queen Victoria. Such a list could help determine whether gunmakers had to have official recognition from the Lord Chamberlain in order to claim royal patronage, or if simply selling a gun to a member of the royal household was enough to claim "Maker to..." without the grant of a formal Warrant of Royal Appointment.

Gunmakers with royal connections I know about include:

- Joseph Lang, gunmaker to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia
- Parker, Field & Sons, gunmaker to Her Majesty Queen Victoria
- George Fuller, gunmaker to HRH The Prince Consort (Albert)
- James Dalziel Dougall, Gun and Rifle Manufacturer to the Prince of Wales (1872)
- William Greener, gunmaker to HRH The Prince Consort (Albert) (1848)
- James Erskine, gunmaker to Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (elder brother of Albert)
- Edward Paton, gunmaker to HRH The Prince Consort (Albert)
- Charles Moore, gunmaker to King William IV (1836)
- Samuel & Charles Smith, gunmakers to King William IV (1835-1837)
- Edward Charles Reilly, "gun-maker to the Royal Family," as per newspaper advertisements (1863), found by Argo44

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

It would appear that Albert fancied the guns of several makers, and from photographs the Prince of Wales enjoyed guns by Westley Richards. Some of the names mentioned above earned their accolade prior to the pinfire period, or shortly afterwards. If anyone has additional information as to royal patronage in the 1850s-1860s, official or otherwise, I would like to hear about it, please post what you know.

Last edited by Steve Nash; 02/04/21 05:49 PM.