William Read & Sons
 

A recent online auction listed a 20GA double by William Read & Sons. I do not remember having seen one of these guns. I looked in the Blue Book and there was no listing for this gun. I checked for a listing in Guns International and could find no listing for this gun on that site.

Since the auction was in my general vicinity, I decided to go to the preview.

This little double appeared to be manufactured in Belgium even though the William Read & Sons was listed as Boston. This shotgun appeared to be well built.

Can any members shed any light on this gun?

Thanks for any information.

Here are the pages from the 1906 Wm. Read & Sons catalog --

Attachment 117014

Attachment 117015

Is this what your gun looks like?

As I recall....Wm Read was a retailer. He changed the name to Wm. Read and Son in about 1856..and was gone sometime in the 20s. I have a .36 caliber Plains rifle retailed by him..

I have a rare 1872 high grade single shot 8 gauge light waterfowl gun by W. C. Scott and Sons. It came from the original owners home which was in Boston. My research revealed that Read was the exclusive importer for Scott, a deal that had only recently been put in place. A copy of the 1872 Scott catalog had several positive reviews of the Scott guns from the US, a lot of them from the midwest and by trapshooters. These all quoted Read as the source of their guns. They apparently had a good share of the relatively high end import market across the country at one time. Their catalogs of the later 19th century were large and listed all types of sporting goods. I believe the guns marked by them were contract guns. Their high end imports were marked by the maker.

I believe Read retailed Lindner guns.

William Read and Sons
 

Mr. Bill,

If you posted a picture, it did not come through. The prior posted picture from the catalog does not show enough detail for me to make a comparison.

The Read shotgun I saw was a boxlock action with fine line checkering. It had the front plunger forend release (I cannot recall that name of that action, old age memory), fluid steel barrels, and well executed engraving. The gun appeared to have pins instead of screws in the frame/receiver. The chokes were CYL/IMP CYL with my Galazan brass gauge. The barrels measured approximately 27 1/2" long and did not appear to have been cut. The length of pull was 14". I have some Brownell's chamber gauges that have lines measured at 2 3/4" and 3" for the 20 GA, so I could not get an accurate chamber length.

Even with my lack of knowledge of such things I could tell it was a well-made shotgun. The only part that did not seem to be of a higher-grade piece was the quality of the wood of the buttstock.

I had bid on the shotgun but was "sniped" by the end of bidding. I tried to up my bid but was unable to get in on time.

The "gun guy" with the auction company said he had never seen one in his lifetime, and he had worked for the company for several years and in a gun shop prior to his time with the auction company. This fellow was in his 60's and has been involved in the business for his adult life.

I was unable to reach the guy from the auction company this morning to find out where the little gun ended up.

Murphy post a picture!! You must be dreaming!!

William Read & Sons
 

Mr. Murphy and I must have several things in common.

My question was referring to the catalog picture.

I have a William Read & Sons 16ga, that was built for them in Belgium per the PM. Very nice gun with Krupp barrels. I shoot only 2 12" shells in it, as the chambers are short a bit.

William Read & Sons
 

Thanks for the reply. I could not tell much from the catalog picture though.

I did not get the shotgun. I was "sniped" at the end of the auction.

Just as an aside William Reed was related to my Mother. His grandson was a dentist in Lynn Ma. just north of Boston and was retired when I was a lad but he did a little work from his home office and put braces on me in the early 60s.

Thank you for the reply. There may be others on here that have/will have Read guns that may want to contact you for information on the family. I am sure Mr. Nelson's gun is a fine shotgun. I enjoy the history of old guns.

Thanks again.

And in addition to imported and Wm. Read-marked contract guns, Wm. Read & Sons, according to a PGCA Research Letter on my father's 12-gauge DHE, ordered from Meriden and retailed Parker guns.

Wm. Read was a major retailer of U.S., English and Continental guns
An old thread on DoubleGun
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums...&Number=167803

https://photos.smugmug.com/Vintage-S...liamREad-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Vintage-S...iamRead5-M.jpg

Them 45 caliber Sharp's hammerless rifles for $6 sound good to me!!

I had a Lefever D Grade with two sets of barrels. It was cased in a fine leather case with the William Read label on the lid interior. The case was obviously original and made for the gun.

Wm. Reed & Sons Gun cabinets
 

Right-side up.

What company manufactured the clock?

Very nice looking gun cases. Thanks for posting.

Wm. Reed & Sons Gun cabinets
 

Nice Foxes, Tom.

Parker listing in the 1906 Wm. Read & Sons catalog

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...0catalog-L.jpg

From the Wm. Read & Sons 1906 catalog --

Attachment 117233

Attachment 117234

With all the interest in Wm Read & Sons, I felt compelled to dig mine out of the safe. A 16ga w/28" barrels and good dimensions it fits me well, as it did in the early 90s when discovered at the Kittery Trading Post.

that's a fine looking gun.....charlie