A Mystery Shotgun

The long-established and highly regarded auction house of James D. Julia, in Fairfield, Maine, is routinely entrusted with a cornucopia of wondrous and historical firearms from consignors who know their items will be honestly described, accurately appraised and widely advertised prior to going under the hammer. Firearms consignors truly appreciate the hard work the Julia staff devotes to auctions that have grossed an average of nearly $9 million in the past four years, with the most recent auction grossing more than $12.5 million.

But occasionally a gun comes along that stumps even Julia’s fire-arms experts, including chief firearms consultant J.R. LaRue and sales coordinators Bill Taylor and Wes Dillon. One such gun is a very intriguing early 20th Century side-by-side shotgun that is slated for auction this October. I think you will agree that this is a true “mystery shotgun”—one that blends subtle characteristics of turn-of-the-century Remington double guns and the venerable L.C. Smith shotgun.

The 12-bore non-ejector gun has 28-1/2" monoblock barrels, with a tapered concave game rib that has been rolled with a non-reflecting pattern. Chambers are 2-9/16" with abrupt forcing cones. The stock has a 14" length of pull, 1-7/8" drop at comb and 3" drop at heel as well as a hard-rubber butt-pad. There are no serial numbers or other factory-identifying marks.

The gun is a stunning visual treat—exceedingly well made, with the buttstock wood, although of modest figure, having seemingly grown around the metal. The metal is fully engraved in a pleasing pattern so popular in the 20 years before and after the turn of the 20th Century, with well-executed dogs: a pointer on the left side of the receiver and a setter on the right. Three partridge—not quite as well executed as the dogs—adorn the underside of the receiver. And did I mention that the gun is a sidelock—or, to use a better term, is fitted with “sideplates”? That is how the lock mechanism is described in the patent issued by the US Patent Office to George Henry Giddings, of Ilion, New York, on October 12, 1915. The three-pin action features Giddings’ unique coil spring.

So what does George Henry Giddings have to do with this unique shotgun? For start-ers, his name and a 1907 date are engraved on the trigger guard, and the legend “G. H. Giddings Design – Patent Pending” is found on the receiver’s water table. Was this shotgun actually made in 1907? Some 100 years later it is impossible to state with certitude that 1907 actually was the date of manufacture, but, given the limited information gleaned about this mystery gun, that year is more reasonable than not.

The Remington Arms Co., founded in 1816 on the Erie Canal in Ilion, New York, manufactured a wondrous variety of rifles, pistols and shotguns during its tenure in that location, but it never put into production a sidelock or sideplate shotgun. In fact, the only feature on this mystery gun that truly can be described as a Remington feature is the snap-on forend—something that was common on turn-of-the-century shotguns and finds wide acceptance even today. The sideplates are more commonly associated with the L.C. Smith design. Like my British friends, I characterize the L.C. Smith design as a “sidelock in heritage” but deserving of its own designation as a sideplate design. Certainly the hammers, springs, sears and sear springs are mounted on the sideplates, but the sidelock is noted for its easy disassembly and removal of the lock, whereas disassembly of sideplates from Elsie receivers takes a bit more work.

I wish I could tell you more about George Henry Giddings, because he caused the creation of an exceptional shotgun. City directories of the Ilion, New York, area are fragmentary, and those that exist are tantalizingly incomplete. There is a listing for a Charles H. Giddings residing at 31 West Clark Street in 1883; occupation: gunsmith. Although Charles’s employer is not listed, one would suppose that many gunsmiths in Ilion were employed by Remington Arms. Could Charles have been the father or at least a close relative of George Henry? I did discover a George H. Giddings born in 1879 in Ilion, so it is possible that George was a son of Charles, but I’ve been unable to determine how George earned his living and have located no record of his ever being an employee of Remington. However, the consignor of this shotgun has identified Giddings as an employee of Remington Arms, and the consignor’s information is eminently trustworthy. (He purchased the gun in the mid-1980s from Dr. Earl Cline, a gun collector and champion trap and skeet shooter, who had bought the gun from Giddings’ relatives.)

Even without the consignor’s information, it is obvious that George H. Giddings had to have had some connection with the firearms industry, for he was granted three patents for firearms designs. Patent 1,156,222 of October 12, 1915, describes our mystery shotgun accurately, but the application for Letters Patent was not filed until March 2, 1914, seven years after the supposed date of manufacture engraved on the mystery gun’s trigger guard. So let’s look at the year 1907, when Remington was still in the business of producing high-grade shotguns—and losing money on every one it manufactured. It was not exactly a hemorrhage of red ink, but the accountants were tracking material and labor costs against revenues derived from the double-barreled shotgun line and reporting to senior Remington management that shotguns were generating “negative profit margins” for the company.

Without access to the minutes of the Remington Board of Directors’ meetings from 1907 to 1910, it is impossible to determine exactly when the corporate decision to terminate the double-shotgun line was made. The shotgun market of the time was extremely competitive. Remington’s immediate competitor was nearby Ithaca, which was producing field-grade guns that were selling well. At the turn of the century Remington had introduced its Model 1900 hammerless side-by-side to replace the Model 1894. A diminished parts count for the 1900 reduced material and labor costs and permitted a lower retail price. The company’s sales projections for the 1900 were of course confidential but apparently were not being met.

Although the consignor did not specify what George H. Giddings’ position was at Remington, I suspect he was in marketing and sales. If this, indeed, were the case, Giddings no doubt saw an opportunity to market an “upscale” double shotgun and proposed his design as the solution to the dismal sales of Remington’s shotgun line. Regardless of whether Remington management did an analysis of production costs, it’s obvious that manufacturing costs of Giddings’ sideplate design would have exceeded those of the standard Model 1900. In any event Remington was directing its focus on its more profitable lines, and in 1910 the double-shotgun line was eliminated for good.

But Giddings had a “novel design” (all applications for Letters Patent must claim novel improvements over the existing “art”) for a “breech loading firearm,” and to protect his design from infringement he successfully obtained patent 1,156,222. Still, there remain many unanswered questions about this mystery shotgun. The gun is very well turned out, but who manufactured it? Could it have been a one-off prototype produced in Remington’s shops? Could it have been manufactured by a competitor, such as Ithaca? Did George Henry Giddings “shop” his design to other manufacturers? And who was the talented engraver?

This Giddings shotgun is evidently one of a kind, but it is neither a proof-of-concept nor a prototype. It is more akin to a unique salesman’s sample and is a true rarity. I cannot postulate what degree of interest this mystery gun will generate when it comes up for auction at Julia’s, but I hope that it will speak to a wide audience and reach out to someone who will cherish it as its consignor has for many years.

As for George Henry Giddings (1879-1923), he rests in the Village of Ilion Cemetery, in German Flats, New York, and doubtlessly will be watching the auction with interest.

Author’s Note: The Giddings gun will be featured in the James Julia auction of October 6 to 8. For more information—or if you can provide details about the gun or G.H. Giddings—contact James D. Julia Auctioneers, 207-453-7125; www.julia auctions.com.

J.E. Fender lives in New Hampshire, where he is a freelance writer and the legal counsel for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. During the past 45 years some 2,000 of his articles have appeared in a variety of sporting publications. He also is the author of The Frost Saga (University Press of New England), a series of novels examining the American Revolution through the eyes of a privateer captain.