This Old Gun - Need Help Identifying Shotgun

[midtennchip]

A buddy of mine is into old guns and asks my help identifying and valuing them from time to time, but I know almost nothing about these old guns.  He has a side-by-side muzzleloader shotgun (caliber unknown) that I have not been able to find.  It is engraved as JH Johnston (GWGW), which I have identified as a Great Western Gun Works production.  However, the interesting part is that it is engraved PITTBURGH PA (without the "s").  We are trying to figure out if this is a bad reproduction or something else.  Can't imagine it would be worth enough for someone to want to fake one of them, but who knows. 

[RichardR]

Doubt it's a reproduction, here is a bit of history I found.

The following contributed by DR. James Whisker

Great Western Gun Works. The Great Western Gun Works was founded by James Hampton Johnston, originally of Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. James H. was a son of John H. Johnston (1811â €‘1889), well known gunsmith whose work is generously represented by surviving examples. The first year that John H. Johnston was taxed as a gunsmith was 1832. In 1834 John obtained a lease on land he later purchased on the southwest side of Main St., Waynesboro. In 1850 the U.S. Census showed that Johnston had real estate valued at $1000 and was age 39 years, a gunsmith by trade. According to information supplied by his son, James, John had apprenticed with Henry Carlile of Shippensburg. The Waynesboro Village Record of 23 May 1889 carried an obituary for John H. Johnston, saying that he was in his eightieth year at his death. James Hampton Johnston was a son of John H. Johnston and apprenticed with him. His early years were spent in Waynesboro. In 1866 he went to Pittsburgh and founded the Great Western Gun Works. A second son of John H. Johnston, George B., joined James H. in the Great Western Gun Works enterprise, although far less is known of him and his influence on the firm's growth seems to have been minimal.

Johnston, James Hampton (-1915). His son, John A. Johnston, entered the firm about 1888 and took over management in 1896. John A Johnston continued the business until 1923. While the firm operated exclusively in Pittsburgh, its addresses changed periodically, as shown by entries from period directories: Great Western catalogues show guns ranging in price from a low for plain guns of $7.50 to a high of $55 for fancy sporting rifles. He also sold small cannon and handguns. The better Great Western Gun Works firearms can compete with the better guns made in cottage industry shops. The lower priced items compete with poorer grade arms made by inferior workmen and the workaday guns made by any of the individual craftsmen. We have not seen any carved guns made by Great Western. The principal objection collectors have to Great Western products is that they are formula arms, all basically the same. Superior grade arms are simply the plainer grade guns with a bit of decoration and engraving added.

[midtennchip]

Thanks, Richard. I ran across that, but what has me puzzled is the PITTBURGH (no "s") engraving. Maybe that happened more commonly back then, but it is engraved like that on both sides. If that "error" wasn't there, I wouldn't have any reason to doubt it was made by GWGW.

[RichardR]

*shrug* maybe back then they only had a single pit? & added the S after digging a couple more?