Product Details
JOHN DICKSON & SON
AN EARLY AND RARE SIDELEVER VARIANT 16-BORE 1880 PATENT 'SKELETON' ROUND-ACTION NON-EJECTOR, serial no. 3808,
28in. unsigned nitro replacement barrels (by David Mckay Brown in 1970), 2 1/2in. chambers, bored approx. imp. cyl. and 1/4 choke, John Dickson patent 'round action' in rare skeletal form, patent no. 294 of 23rd January 1880, use number 75, tang-mounted 1882 patent gold pin cocking-indicators, automatic safety with gold-inlaid 'SAFE' detail, the fences engraved 'JOHN DICKSON & SON PATENT', skeletal bar and furniture with fine acanthus scroll engraving, 14 1/8in. well-figured stock (cracked through hand), fore-end with Anson push rod release, minor losses to leading edges of wood, weight 5lb. 12oz., in a lightweight leather case with dark green velveteen lining and pictorial John Dickson & Son trade label
Provenance: The makers have kindly confirmed that the gun was sold on the 10th October 1883, action use number 75 and with 27 1/2in. barrels for Lt Col. John Fletcher Hathorn.
Col. Hathorn was born in 1839 at Boquhan House near Stirling into a landowning family. He enlisted in the Coldstream Guards as an Ensign on 14th July 1854 aged 15. He was promoted Lt. Colonel on 23rd November 1870 and retired from the army on the 3rd August 1872.
He married Charlotte Dick Lauder from a prominent Edinburgh family on 1st March 1875 and moved to Castlewigg House, Whithorn in Wigtownshire where this gun, bought in 1883, would reside. He became a partner in Hathorn, Davis & Campbell, big manufacturers of steam pumps and steam machinery at the Sun Foundry in Leeds. He died very young on the 18th November 1888 aged 49 just five years after he bought the Dickson. Castlewigg House was burned down in 1933 and today it is a spectacular ruin.
A recent video outlining the History of Castlewigg House:
David Mckay Brown has kindly confirmed that he re-barrelled the gun in 1970.
Literature: In his book 'John Dickson & Son - The Round Action Gunmaker' by Donald Dallas, his extensive examination of the Dickson records reveals that just thirteen 'skeletal' examples are known to be listed, only three of which were in 16-bore calibre
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Estimate £3,000-5,000
S2 - Sold as a Section 2 Firearm under the 1968 Firearms Act