sakmyk:
Although it is difficult for some posters here to swallow, a great many so-called English gun makers never made a single gun themselves. We are all familiar with the Scott-made Hollands before they began making the Royal, and there have been long threads here on Webley numbers, and the Turner and Leonard-built Jeffery doubles. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

It is pretty obvious that many so-called 'makers' even in London simply recieved their orders from their Birmingham contractors, peeled back the wrapper enough to confirm that the items were delivered as ordered, then sent off telegrams to the waiting clients. In many cases, perhaps most cases, the guns were delivered completely finished as ordered: stocked, engraved, blacked etc, with whatever name and address engraved on the locks and rib as the 'gunmaker' specified. Of course many Birmingham firms employed sub-contractors in the form of action filers, barrel strikers, stockers and engravers to assemble the components, as only the larger firms could afford to employ these workers 'in house'.

The most accurate and unbiased publications on this subject are not about doubles at all! Read between the lines in Wally Winfer's books on Single Shot Rifles for a pretty good picture of how the British gun trade was actually conducted! Wally is not bashful about admitting who built what, and for whom! Tate's book on Birmingham gunmakers gives a reasonable insight too, but from memory he 'pulls his punches' a little!

Its a highly interesting subject, made all the more fascinating by the fact that the historical record is incomplete, to say the least, and in many cases we are left with only the guns themselves as testament to the intricacies of the British gun trade a century ago.

That said, I have never heard or read of a tie-up between Purdey and Rodda, but nothing would surprise me! I'd be interested to hear just what your 'certain evidence' for this link is!