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I feel like I struck gold 2 weeks in a row, plus I had a couple of questions.
Two weeks ago, I watched an auction on Gunbroker that was mislabeled. It was a listing for an LC Smith field grade 16 gauge. When I looked it was a 1935 Ithaca NID in really nice shape except for some added varnish that needed to be removed and a White Line pad that had failed. The description was for a Smith. It was obvious that the pictures were for a 20 gauge NID. I contacted the guy and he said that the gun “said Ithaca but he wasn’t sure of the gauge.” (This was an FFL.) Nobody bid and about 5 minutes before the close I bought it for the opening bid just a little over $500. It ended up with great wood, good blue, perfect bores and chokes. With a little TLC it will be an exceptional grouse gun.
Last week I saw a gun listed as an English Watson 12/28 gauge. Of course it was 12 gauge and the weight was listed as 7-1/2 pounds with 28 gauge tubes.
The gun looked tremendous. No importers mark so it has been here a while. Really nice wood, Damascus and blue. I am sure that everyone who read the listing thought (Bad Barrels!!). The problem was that the gun looked way too good to have bad barrels. It looked like a well taken care of gun. The ad sort of indicated the tubes were permanent. There were a lot of bids but they were all bottom feeders (like me!). I decided to bid and got it for $730 all in delivered. The pictures below are what I received today.
The wood looks great I think for a North of London boxlock.
You can see the finish, fit and metalwork. When I knocked out the tubes, the bores were like mirrors (no permanent tubes). Only thing was some scattered oil and grease behind the tubes which prevented any rust. Chambers were original 2-1/2". Left bore .722, .700 choke. Right tube .716 , .714 choke. Both barrels essentially the same thickness; .035-.04 behind the chokes, .050 at the forearm, and thicker as it goes back with 0.12 at the forcing cones. Stock is 1-1/2” DAC, 2-1/4” DAH, 14-3/8” curve of front trigger to center of butt. Butt plate appears to be black buffalo horn with a little flaking and engraved, indexed screws. There is a gold shield near the toe.
Outside of the barrels have gone to brown but the Damascus pattern still shows through well. They look to be a three row Croille.
Total weight of the gun without the tubes is 6# 4oz, the same as my 28” 16 gauge DHE O frame. Barrels on the new gun are 30”.
To top it off, I got an almost new set of $695 Briley Companion 28 gauge tubes thrown in. That puts the gun at close to zero.
I have not been able to find much about Watkins. I only found two references of any size. I found a writeup on DoubleGunshop about pinfires that stated the company started with a German named Jabez Bloxham Welch b. 1786. He started a gunshop in 1829 on Butcher’s Row in Banbury, a small town in Oxfordshire between London and Oxford. By 1851 he was widowed and living with his nephew Thomas Julian Watkins b. 1821 , also a gunmaker. Welch retired in 1852 and turned the whole business over to Watkins. Watkins married Eliza Mortimer, a daughter of one of the Mortimer gunmakers in London. She was also associated with the Blanch gunmaking family in London. Their son Thomas Mortimer was born in 1856. Thomas eventually took over the business that was moved to 75 High Street in 1857. A Google map search with street view shows this is now a Pub in an old tourist section of the town.
This had to have been a small maker. The serial number is 27xx and I believe the Birmingham proof marks show it was proofed between 1875 and 1896. It is quite a modern appearing and dimensioned gun to be this old. I wonder if someone here can confirm the date range (I am not very current on British proofs) and if anyone has any info on Watkins. I can only remember 2 others for sale, and these were not viewed in person.
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