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28189 - (1886) - What a trade label can tell you about a gun


Terry Buffum sent this ebay advertisement for an EM Reilly leather case:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-leather-shotgun-case-by-E-M-Reilly-Co-London/303904492540?hash=item46c21e8bfc:g:FaoAAOSwp~RgPVLn
Edit". Case was pretty much dilapidated but with original labels - probably for a hammer gun..sold for $109....the labels alone would be worth something.

I sent this message back..and thanks Terry!!!

Many thanks Terry...a couple of comments:

The working inside label mentions SN 28189. 12 bore, SxS Shotgun. That would be 1886 - obviously black powder era. I did not have that gun.

Yet the label in the case is a post 1897 label after the May 97 closure of 16 New Oxford Street....and the inside label also has the crossed out 277 Oxford Street address replaced by the 295 New Oxford Street address. It looks like it was sold from a gentlemen in North Devon (see crossed out address) to a "Major Hurle" in "Yarlington House"?...(something) (Uricanton?) Station?

I assume that the gun was
-- Bought in 1886 - probably made at 277 Oxford Street - for a fellow "G.A.P".
-- Either resold or reconditioned sometime after 1897 (when the new trade label was added) to a fellow in North Devon named
. . . . ."Alberton"? S. "Scodon"?
. . . . .(can't make out the name of the scratched out village but it has a lot of "T"'s .."Schott" seems to be a common ending for North Devon/Somerset villages)
. . . . . North Devon
-- then sold to Maj. Hurle (possibly going out to Cairo, 1 Brigade? based on stamps on the case) - and at the time reconditioned at 295 Oxford sometime after May 1904 (when 295 is known to be open) - and possibly reproofed for nitro?.

[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]

Note: There is a "Yarlington Estate" down near Cornwall...in Yeovil, Somerset - close enough to North Devon to make this plausible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarlington

Edit:
Here is the exterior of the case:
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]

And here is a label affixed to the case handle: (Note the vaguely discernible name on the label....?.I.Pesse?)...
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]


(Hard work, dedication, research, analysis and knowledge is not "cut and paste." Oh wait, we're talking to West Tennessee here - kind of a foreign language for that crowd).

Last edited by Argo44; 05/03/21 07:29 PM.

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