Stephen grant & sons

[gaetano2007]

Salve vorrei sapere qualcosa in piu su questi fucili inglesi ..... a parte cio che è possibile leggere nei libri di Lupi........ conoscete qualche altro libro che ne parla? chi ne possiede qualche modello? Chi ne sa qualcosa in genere. saluti Gaetano

[bior65]

Una volta ho visto un libro che parlava di fucili inglesi..... non ricordo il titolo ma ricordo che era in inglese.

[Lucio Marzano]

i testi di Lupi, grandi fucili da caccia, grandi fucili da caccia europei e il fucile da caccia dal 1800 ad oggi, parlano di S.Grant in modo diffuso ed esauriente,
c'è anche il bel libro di Marco Nobili "fucili d'autore, edizioni "il volo" che ne parla.
Grant é uno dei grandi dell'archibugeria inglese

[gaetano2007]

Grazie Lucio conosco i libri di Lupi quello di Marco Nobili Fucili d'autore ne parla solo un breve accenno..... comunque grazie del suggerimento.Gaetano

[Lucio Marzano]

Trovo e riporto :

Stephen Grant

Stephen Grant was apprenticed to Kavanagh of Dublin before coming to London, where he is believed to have been with Charles Lancaster prior to working for Thomas Boss. On Boss's death in August 1857, his widow made him a managing partner. He ran the firm for 10 years before deciding to set up on his own at 67a St James's St, London in 1867. In 1884 Grant set up the Grant & Woodward Shooting and Fishing Agency at the same address. This later became Paton Grant & Woodward and survived until 1959 when it was sold to the London estate Agents Strutt & Parker, Lofts & Warner. Grants two sons, Stephen and Herbert, joined the business and in 1889 the name was changed to Stephen Grant & Sons.

Grant himself was a cautious man, disinclined to espouse new designs until he was quite satisfied that they were fully effective, and in the last quarter of the nineteenth century the quality and reliability he built into his guns was recognised by the award of a number of warrants from the Queen, The Prince of Wales and several other Royal Houses in Europe and further afield.

After the disruption caused by the First World War, the business moved to 7 Bury St, St James's. By this time, ownership of the business had passed to William Robson whose son, WRH (Roy) Robson, joined his father in the business in 1923 and subsequently became a director in 1925. It was in this period that the Robsons, who had no previous background in gunmaking, set about the acquisition of a number of famous London gunmakers that were facing hard times.

The first move was the acquisition in 1925 of Joseph Lang & Son Ltd, as a result of which the whole business was then renamed Stephen Grant & Joseph Lang Ltd and remained at the Bury St premises. In 1930 it acquired Harrison & Hussey Ltd, in 1932 Charles Lancaster & Co Ltd, in 1935 Watson Bros, in 1939 Frederick Beesley and then, after the Second World War, Roy's father having died in 1946, the final acquisition was Henry Atkin in 1960. As a result the name of the business was changed to Atkin Grant & Lang Ltd, still at 7 Bury St. A few years before that, in 1950, the 200-year-old Redditch tackle firm of Messrs Milwards Fishing Tackle Ltd set up its London base with Grant & Lang and Col. HGV Milward became a director of Grant & Lang and remained until his retirement and the take-over by Cummings.

Roy Robson, for all his lack of gunmaking background was highly thought of in the trade in which he was active behind the scenes and with the Gunmakers Association, of which his father had been chairman in 1933 and 1934, and he had been in 1949. In 1957-64 he was also the President of the Association, the first from a non-gunmaking family, the three previous incumbents being Messrs Holland, Greener and Purdey. In addition to all this, he was Master of the Gunmakers Company in 1950 and 1959 and he took a great interest in the Long Sufferers Association and the Gun and Allied Trades Benevolent Society, which looks after old gunmakers an their families who have fallen on hard times. His cousin, Betty Brown, joined the company in December 1938 and followed in his footsteps to become the first and so far the only lady Chairman of the Gun Trade Association in 1962.

Around 1964, Churchill (Gunmakers) Ltd became associated with Atkin Grant & Lang Ltd. In 1967 Churchills moved into the 7 Bury St premises, which the business had occupied for 47 years. Sam Cummings, as American businessman who owned Churchills, had acquired the business. Roy Robson had retired in 1964 and Betty Brown resigned in 1968 after the 1967 take-over. Along with the surviving records and goodwill of the various gunmaking companies in the Atkin Grant and Lang Group, Cummings acquired a unique collection of the various gunmakers' patent guns which had been kept together by the Robsons since the first amalgamation in 1925. Unfortunately, this collection was not passed on with the various companies on their subsequent resale, but was eventually sold by Sotheby's in 1993.

In 1971 the name was again changed to Churchill, Atkin Grant & Lang Ltd and in 1976 the business was moved to 61 Pall Mall, St James's, the long-time premises of Hardy Bros, the famous fishing tackle manufacturers, who had themselves started out as gunmakers. By this time, ownership of the gunmaking company had passed through the hands of Thomas Poole and Gladstone China Clay Ltd and subsequently into the hands of Harris * Sheldon Group who also owned Hardys. For a variety of reasons, including the lack of business, it was decided to close the gunmaking side of the business down and Churchill Atkin Grant & Lang ceased trading in 1980. However, such famous gunmaking names were not likely to remain dormant long and the following year new proprietors restarted the three names of Atkin Grant & Lang & Co Ltd at 6 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2, with their factory at 53 Wildhill, Essendon, Herts, from which it continued to produce a small number of guns and rifles until 1966 when the company was advertised for sale.

[gaetano2007]

Grazie Lucio