SHOTGUNS AND GUNSMITHS: THE VINTAGE YEARS. By Geoffrey Boothroyd.

(1986) 1993 1st US edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Pp240. B/w photographs, illustrations, decorative end-papers. Blue boards, spine titled in gilt.

"In this important book about the sporting shotgun, Geoffrey Boothroyd provides a fascinating insight into the lives and skilled work of gunsmiths who helped develop the shotgun during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. With the aid of illustrations drawn mainly from private collections, he discusses guns made by such great names as Boswell, Purdey, Lang, Scott, Grant, Greener and Westley Richards. He also gives valuable accounts of weapons which came from the workshops of less well known, though equally remarkable, craftsmen who had brought British gunmaking to the peak of perfection by the opening decades of the twentieth century. These gunsmiths include Pape, Ford, Horsley, Griffiths, Golden and Harrison."