Fine Gunmaking

In the course of my career in the world of fine guns, the “researcher” category of aficionado always has intrigued me. I mean the true historians, the guys who go way out of their way to collect and compile information about guns and gunmakers from earlier times. Regular readers of this column know that I do my part to make sure that infor-mation about some of today’s gun crafts-men is recorded for future generations of researchers. Part of the reason I present this material is knowing of the extreme challenges some of my researcher friends go through just to find bits and pieces about the craftsmen of the not-so-distant past.
One such fellow is Daryl Hallquist, who collects early American double guns with a special interest in Baker shotguns. Daryl’s been at it since the 1960s and used to run a “Wanted: Baker shotguns” ad in Shotgun News. I met Daryl when he started showing up at the invitation-only Sunday shoot we had at a friend’s ranch. He brought finer shotguns than I had known were made in America and always shot them.
At the suggestion of another “researcher” friend—and based on requests from the most recent SSM reader survey—in the next couple of columns I am going to look at some American double shotguns of note and see what interests might be perked by these unusual specimens.

The 12-gauge hammergun shown here is from Daryl’s collection and is in virtually new condition. It appears to be extremely well made in all respects, yet it is almost completely unadorned. The top rib is hand-engraved with “Thos. L. Golcher Maker No. 116 W. Girard Ave. Philadelphia. Pa.,” leaving no doubt that Mr. Golcher was proud of the gun. The lockplates also are engraved “T.L. Golcher.” The only other engraving is the rosettes on the screwheads and the barrel-rib extension, and it is of rather pedestrian quality.
The Golcher name in general is well known in association with gunmakers in Philadelphia, but Thomas, specifically, is not one of the more prevalent. Here is a brief recap of some Golcher gunmaking history in Philadelphia (with much thanks to Peter Mikalajunas, another extraordinary firearms researcher, specializing in family trees).
The father of our Golcher family was James Golcher, who was born in England about 1810 and had an occupation listed in immigration records as gunmaker. Golcher immigrated to the US in 1839 and settled in Philadelphia. A year later his wife, 6-year-old son, William, and two daughters arrived in America. In the 1850 US Census James is listed as being 40; having been born in England; having a son William, age 16, who was born in England; and having a son Thomas (our Thomas!), age 8, who was born in Pennsylvania.
Son William garnered the most attention as a gunmaker, first in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area, where he relocated and was granted patents for break-open firearms. William was successful at manufacturing guns, rifles and pistols in Minnesota until about 1877, when he returned to England and met J.P. Cla-brough, a gunmaker with shops in Birmingham and also San Francisco. As a result of this meeting, William moved to San Francisco, and by 1879 he was managing the Clabrough firm there. In 1883 he purchased a half-interest in the firm, and it became known as “Clabrough & Golcher.” William died in 1886 at the age of 52.
Of William’s brother, Thomas, we know very little. I know of only five T.L. Golcher-signed guns—another 12-gauge, three 10-gauges and an 8-gauge—but I’ve only seen photos of the 8-bore and nothing of the others. The 8-gauge has only border-style engraving, whereas one of the 12s and one of the 10s are reputed to be lavishly engraved. They are all hammerguns, and all but one is noted to carry the crown-over-crossed-pistols hallmark on the bottom of the barrels (see photo). The commonality of this barrel mark provides significant information, as it is the mark of Heinrich August Lindner, a Prussian gunmaker of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Lindner is best known for the so-called Prussian-made Charles Daly double shotguns.
The H.A. Lindner firm was founded in Suhl, Germany, in 1874, and shortly thereafter the New York firm Schoverling & Daly started selling imported shotguns from the maker. The Charles Daly logo began going on these imported guns about 1875, and I have seen a copy of an 1877 advertisement for “The Daly Gun” listed with Schoverling & Daly’s New York address and in small type “T.L. Golcher, Phila.” as a dealer. The picture of the gun in the ad looks very much like Daryl’s gun shown here.
Another clue to the dating of these guns is found in the changing of German proof laws and American import regulations. In 1891 Germany required guns to be proofed in a government proof house and to be marked as such. Because the government proof mark included a crown, Lindner dropped the crown from his mark and started putting his initials, HAL, over the crossed pistols. About that time American import laws also were changed to require country-of-origin markings, so the imported Lindner guns started being marked “Prussia” for US import along with the newly required German proof marks. So after 1891 to ’93 all Lindner guns coming into the US should have had both German and American markings.
Because Daryl’s T.L. Golcher has only the crown-over-crossed-pistols mark and because it is an earlier hammergun (most surviving Lindners and Dalys are hammerless) and is a dead ringer for the one in the 1877 advertisement, I think it is safe to date it in the 1880s.
This notion of attributing date of origin to guns that are not specifically marked for date is tricky at best. Patent dates can help greatly, and in this case the Deeley & Edge forend latch was patented in 1873, so we can date the gun after that. But in my years in this business I’ve seen many attributions of dates and makers that have proven false when additional information has surfaced later. Unfortunately these often have been published in books or magazines, compounding the problem.
This Golcher gun appears to be very well made on the outside, with well-formed and nicely detailed metalwork that all functions as it should. The stock is made from quarter-sawn walnut (I presume of a European variety) with good grain flow and attractive fiddleback figure. It has a horn buttplate and an extensively checkered splinter for-end and rounded pistol grip. The delicate comb fluting and deep contouring behind the grip give the stock an almost voluptuous fullness that is well scaled to its size and weight.
Removing and inspecting the locks, I found the same high degree of quality and distinctly fine craftsmanship. The rebounding hammer works on the simple principle of the upper leg of the mainspring contacting the front of the tumbler leg at the bottom of the hammer fall. Both the mainspring and sear spring are nicely formed with long leaves and perfect tapers.
The stockmaking as seen from the inside shows very crisp inletting with just a trace more wood removed than needed for the parts to function. As seen in the photos, the screwheads are seated in the inletting, and lest one assume this is show-off work, a few of the screws are a touch loose but prevented from getting any looser by the close-tolerance inletting.
This is a very fine shotgun and certainly worthy as a collectable or a blackpowder shooter, but one mystery remains: If Thomas Golcher was the maker, as engraved on the rib, how much did he make and how much was made by H.A. Lindner? Because the skills to make and finish the stock, engrave the barrel markings and do the brown barrel finishing and case hardening were common to both Philadelphia and Suhl, we have no idea in what state of completion the gun was brought into this country. Further, at that time Lindner clearly was capable of “best quality” work, including elaborate engraving and embellishment, so if that firm was largely responsible, why is this gun so plain?
These are all good questions for future research.

Autographed copies of Steven Dodd Hughes’s new book, Double Guns and Custom Gunsmithing, are available for $48 postpaid from the author, PO Box 545, Livingston, MT 59047.