Product Details
GUNMAKERS COMPANIES - G.E. LEWIS
THE COMPANY, RECORDS AND NUMEROUS EPHEMERA OF THE FIRM G.E. LEWIS,
the whole presenting an opportunity to acquire one of the many respected makers of the Birmingham gun trade. Principal lots only are detailed here but a full inventory may be viewed on our website. Full, legal entitlement to the company, title to the website G.E.Lewis.com, five ledgers of gun production from serial number 2501 to 16920 containing full, hand-written descriptions of shotguns and rifles, eighteen domestic day books covering the period 15th May 1872 to 5th April 1946, five foreign day books covering the period 14th January to 9th October 1936, varied annual trading accounts for the company dating from the 1920s and 30s, six shooting ledgers containing pattern plate and zeroing details for shotguns and rifles within the serial number range 7001 to 16742, a computerised database of the company records, six copper printing blocks for trade labels and letterheads, framed exhibition diplomas for Birmingham 1886, Calcutta 1886 and Paris 1878, a quantity of action and barrel stamps to include numerals, letters and barrel flat markings.
Provenance: George Edward Lewis was born in Birmingham on the 23rd January 1829 and, on leaving school, was apprenticed into the gun trade. Here he learnt of all branches of the trade and started up in business very soon after being passed fit as a gunmaker. His first premises were in Bath Street where, at that time, he specialised in engraving. However, he is recorded as moving the business to Lower Loveday Street in 1859 where he was registered as a gun, rifle and pistol maker. Sometime before 1873 he also enjoyed outlets in London, including one at 172 Strand but these were all of fairly short duration. The company was to remain in Lower Loveday Street for well over one hundred years before that area was redeveloped and lost forever.
Lewis senior is probably best remembered for his trademark shotgun known as 'The Gun of the Period' which was of good quality and available in both hammer and hammerless forms. Like many of his peers Lewis earned medals by attending the lavish exhibitions of the period and he gained several Gold Medals as well as diplomas and honours for his products at numerous domestic and foreign events.
Following his death in 1917 the title of the firm passed to his sons; E.C. and another G.E. Lewis. The former was a noted marksman of the time and undertook the regulated of all guns and rifles while his brother ran the company proper. The brothers were good businessmen and were engaged in War Office contracts and well as being quite early advocates of magnum chambered small bores, the latter may well have been for a burgeoning overseas market.
E.C. Lewis had two sons and the elder, E.V. Lewis, was to become an accomplished shot and served with honour during the Great War. The younger sibling and his grand father's namesake, G.E. Lewis was to take the reins of the family firm which he ran until his death in 1988, aged 83. He had also been appointed a Guardian of the Birmingham Proof House in 1951. The company was then acquired by John Harris, a stocker of some repute, who had carried out much work for George Lewis as well as being able to count him as a friend. Harris was to move the company to Price Street and then to Halesowen before reluctantly putting the company up for sale in 2003 when it was purchased by the vendor.
Estimate £12,000-16,000