I have two; a W&C single and a P. Webley double. The single is a middle grade of the premium line with a London address and the P. Webley is a mid-grade of their line before the buyout. The single is an 1872 manufacture and the double is of near the same vintage. The double is very lightweight and is the only 8 ga I have ever seen which could be considered a legitamate upland gun.
There is only one book I am aware of that has been written on the W&C Scott guns. It is short but with a lot of helpful info.
There does happen to be an 1872 catalog reprint available which is more a pamphlet than a large book, since many of the guns were customs and not to a particular grade. During the early years they didn't have specific grades, just 3 general levels. The bulk of them, the lowest grade, were marked with a Birmingham address. The top two levels carried a London address. This changed toward the latter part of the 1870's.
The Scott may have been the first brand to have been imported into the US on a brand basis. The catalog reprint I mentioned was for the year my single was made, but the catalog makes no mention of a single. The one I have is a very sturdy single frame that appears to have been machined from a double frame. It is somewhat assymetric with a lot of complex shaping and a beautiful hammer arrangement. While I have found no listing for it, they seem to have been referred to as a Light Waterfowl gun. My gun is a cylinder bore of exactly 8 bore and has a full 3-1/4 chamber. I is sized to accept a shell the exact size of the Winchester and Remington industrial loads. Upon firing, new shells fireform to the chamber. The Webley has the same chamber. This makes me wonder if the early English guns and those from other countries may have had different specifications.
Starting about 1872, William Read in Boston became their official importer and listed the gun in their catalog.
An interesting fact is that the 1872 Scott catalog had several pages of product reviews of the guns in the back section. While Read was their exclusive importer, a major portion of the reviews seemed to be concentrated in the area from Lexington Ky up through the Cincinnati OH area. Many reviews were from trapshooters. From old newspapers in our area and the myriad shooting trophies at estate sales and in antique stores, it is obvious that the region was a hotbed of the sport during it's early days. This post civil war era co-incided with the development of the formal horse racing events and likely the two sports developed an interest among the same afficianados. Before the war, the racing was held on main street in town. It became too dangerous due to the people on foot so it was banished from the downtown area. Given that the area was famous for horses, Bourbon (Henry Clay in his day hauled barrels of whiskey to Washington every year to supply the Congress) and duels (it was the national hotbed of dueling long after it was outlawed in most states) it is understandable that a sport based on shooting would become popular.
From the number of reviews from the area vs. the total reported in the catalog, Read must have done quite a business with orders from this area.
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