William Read & Sons

[William Woods]

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.

[Researcher]

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

William Read & Sons A&D 1906.jpg

William Read & Sons A&D 1906 02.jpg

[Bill Murphy]

Is this what your gun looks like?

[Jerry VanHorn]

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..

[ArtS]

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.

[Bill Murphy]

I believe Read retailed Lindner guns.

[William Woods]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Is this what your gun looks like?

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.

[Researcher]

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

[William Woods]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

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

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

[Bill Murphy]

My question was referring to the catalog picture.