J Phelps Double Barrel

[samerch]

Can any body tell me about this shotgun its a 16 ga. The locks are marked J Phelps, the barrel rib is marked Phelps Marlboro. The wood is very nice, Locks,Trigger guard and Tang are all engraved. http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e388/smerch666/JPhelps16ga019.jpg[/IMG]]
Thanks Scott

 

[samerch]

 

[Britsmoothy]

Looks mighty unsafe to me.
Send it to me and I'll weld her up and hang it on my wall :rotf:

Looks fabulous.

Brit.

 

[Many Klatch]

Looks English, looks to be about the 1850's to 1870's. Nice wood in the buttstock. Looks like it was used but not abused.

Many Klatch

 

[crockett]

On the English- I'm no expert on this topic but I thought English barrels were all sent to proof houses- in other words the barrels would have proof house stamping- HOWEVER that may have only applied to barrels to be exported- I'm not sure.
AND..... a while back I asked the question about whether anyone knew of any good sources on shotguns. There are books published on American (Pennsylvania/Kentucky) rifles, all the styles, etc but zippo on shotguns. Does anyone know of a book with pictures of various period piece double barrel shotguns?
On the shotgun in question- write to muzzle blasts (NMLRA)- they have a historian that may get you an answer.

 

[samerch]

Heres the proof marks on the barrel. I searched the web and found nothing on J Phelps. The gun seems to be a higher than field grade. I will post some pictures of a Pheasant hunt that I used this gun on last week.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I am hopefull on them being English marks.
I can not weight for them pics, good luck :thumbsup:

Brit.

 

[Many Klatch]

Crockett, I was mostly just talking about the style of the gun as opposed to a Germanic style. The gun could be Belgian in the English style. The proof marks will tell more once they are deciphered.

Many Klatch

 

[mmahlock]

A quick check of proof marks indicate that they are British.

From the left the first two look like Birmingham Provisional Proof Marks. The number 17 would indicate it was classified as a 17 Bore and the mark in the middle looks like a Birmingham Viewing Mark. Again the number 17 would indicate Bore and the mark on the right looks like a Birmingham Company Proof Mark if the marks on the right and left are B and C but I can't tell from the picture.

 

[crockett]

I know nothing about proof marks but I think a gun was proofed (proved?) at either Birmingham or London and I thought the proof included a powder charge and shot charge but there don't seem to be anything of that nature.