There were gun makers and gun Masters . A Gun Master ran a company that had very small " in house " workshops but used many trade out workers and jobbers .William Evans , would have been a gun Master
They commissioned guns from larger makers to be made to their specifications both for stock and individual orders . As they had the guns made to order using subcontractors it was considered to be that they were the gunmaker .
How many items do we have in our home with a branded name that in fact were made in some factory in China for example ?
Up until the mid 70's in the UK with the introduced the Trade Descriptions Act , to prevent people claiming to be " maker " unless they had done a certain percentage of the work themselves , in an effort to prevent cheap imported goods being passed of as British made .
As a result for example ,guns then made by W & S for the likes of Dickson , Cogswell etc. had to be marked as " Made for " or similar , usualy on the rib but the action and tubes would have only the name of the " maker " .
