old double barrel ?

[fastbs]

fella at work has peaked my interest about this old gun so i'm trying to find some info on it. After scouring the net a little i have came up with nothing.

It is way beyond it's prime and he is just going to hang it up on a wall.

on the top vent rib it says London Fine Twist in an old english lettering.

this pic is the bottom.

if anyone knows where i might can find info or has info it would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest nicemac]

Found this:

"My reference book says "Marking seen on double barrel hammer shotgun, maker unknown" But we can determine a bit more than that. Look at the bottom of the barrels under the forearm (you'll have to take the forearm off to do this) for proof marks, By doing this the country of origin can be determined, either Belgium or England. A Belgian made gun will have the letters "ELG" in an oval with possibly a crown over that. An English made gun will have crossed halberds (spear/battle axe) with a crown over that and letters in the intersection. The letters will determine either the Birmingham or London proof house. In any case the gun was most likely made sometime between 1880 and 1914 when World War One, The Great War or The War to End All Wars (choose one) cut off exports of guns from Europe.

There is more:

Shotgunworld.com *Saxton Shotgun

[fastbs]

i found that these are Birmingham UK proof marks. Hard to see in the pic but in this link

UK the marks B3, B2, & B1 in the chart are left to right in the pic.

this dates it somewhere from 1855-1874. still have no idea who made it.

under the far right mark in the pic, the word ROSE is stamped in it and i can find nothing on rose.

[gregintenn]

Is that the only picture you have of the gun?

[1gewehr]

These are Damascus or twist-steel barrels. Do NOT use smokeless powder loads!!! As stated above, the marks are English Birmingham proof marks. The actual gun-makers usually marked the locks, not the barrels.

Twist-steel is exactly what it says. The barrel is formed by twisting steel strips around a mandrel. It was stronger than the common iron barrels, and cheaper than a solid steel tube barrel. The technique died out with the advent of more powerful smokeless powders. The higher pressures of smokeless powder required real steel barrels.

[fastbs]

Is that the only picture you have of the gun?

that's all i took. he only brought the barrel in.

The interesting part to me is that the print "LONDON FINE TWIST" is in an old english looking lettering intead of what i've ran into searching the web.

In the shape it's in it can't be worth much but from what i've found if it were in good shape it could be worth a lot.

Looks like i'll have to get him to bring in the rest of it to look at. Like mentioned earlier it's just a dust collector but a neat one at that.