St Louis Arms Co. Double Barrel

[Billy Jack]

I have a very good friend with Parkinson's disease that wants me to help sell his guns. I need help identifying and pricing this shotgun.
Receiver says "St. Louis Arms Co.", left barrel says "Bored by Skilled Mechanics", right barrel says " Blue Diamond Steel", serial number on barrels, receiver, and fore end all say 7659. There is no Ga., choke, or other information on the gun anywhere. The barrels do not appear to be Damascus.
It seems to be well made and solid. It has been well used but not abused. Has the darkened oiled wood and a nice patina. Cleaned up it would make a handsome old shotgun.

 

[rcmodel]

St. Louis Arms Company: Trade name used by the H. & D. Folsom Arms Company on firearms made for the Shapleigh -Hardware Company of St. Louis, Missouri.

I have no idea on present value.

But it wouldn't be a lot.
Maybe in the $200 -$300 range?

The fancy walnut on that one is probably worth more then the gun!

rc

 

[Billy Jack]

RC, After reading your post I did some searching and found similar info and some mention of the actual manufacturer being a Belgian company, Iver Johnson, or possibly Savage or Stevens. Do you know who actually manufactured them for H & O Folsom? Or was H & O Folsom a manufacturer of firearms? Any way to know the age of the gun?

 

[rcmodel]

Wade through this for about all there is known about H&D folsom arms.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1OxZo5Tkvx2G8eYf747QR9B5RJdN6Siu5JGIhfguSXXQ

http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20091267

If your gun was made in Belgum, it will have Belgum proof marks all over the barrels under the forearm.

rc

 

[Tom Held]

St. Louis Arms

I bought one a few years ago in St. Louis. It's a 12 bore, double trigger, exposed hammers. On the both sides of the receiver: Crown Machine Made St. Louis Arms Co.

What you have a nice wall hanger worth about $100.

 

[Ron James]

H&D Folsom was a very large sporting goods wholesaler. They had their own in house gun company, Crescent Arms Co. however St. Louis Arms is not listed for Crescent. H&D preferred selling their own brand (more profit ) but they would supply what ever the customer wanted. Few people know that Folsom also furnished known brand items also. Your gun could have been made by a number of different makers including those you mention. The only way to really find out is research, such as going to Numrich GPC site and pulling up the different semantics and comparing them. Just for information, there are over 300 different trade names listed for the first half of the 20th century and the list is not complete nor will it ever be complete. For example, for a minimum order ( either 12 or 15 guns, I forget just how many ), Crescent would roll mark any marking the customer wanted al long as the customer paid for the roll dies. If you were the owner of Dick and Jane's hardware store, you could have your shotguns roll marked " Dick and Jane's Gun Co." impressed the hell out of the locals, they figured you had your own gun co. Since the name was legally belonged to the hard ware store, the store could change gun makes any time they wanted. Crescent alone produced several million shotguns and almost all of them were sold under different trade names. Also if you shotgun is Belgium made there will be a Belgium proof mark under the fore arm, ELG in an oval or circle.

 

[Billy Jack]

Ron James....Actually in some of the info that RC listed I did find St. Louis Arms Co. listed on the same page as Crescent. It is not Belgian as there is no proof mark. So I think I will just conclude it is Crescent Arms and call it done.
Any opinion on age or value?

 

[rcmodel]

You should be able to determine the approximate age from the info I provided for the progeession of the companies and designs.
Pinning it down any closer to an exact year will prove nearly, if not impossible.

Value is somewhere near what I said in post #2.

Thats all I got!

rc

 

[Ron James]

Perhaps others have, but I have never seen " Bored by skilled Mechanics " or " Blue Diamond steel " roll marked on any Crescent shotguns, of course I will be the first to admit, there is still a lot of life I have not observed. St. Louis Arms were also made by Stevens, H&R and Crandall Arms Co, So I really don't know.

 

[Billy Jack]

In going back and looking at photos I saw none that looked like my friends. I decided to check on old Stevens and old Hopkins and Allen. It is a Stevens for sure based on the look of the receiver, the trigger guard, the lock up of barrel to receiver, etc.

 

[buck460XVR]

Looks an awful lot like my old Stevens SxS.

 

[JohnBT]

Blue Diamond was a trade name used by the Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Company of St. Louis, which was formed in 1901. They bought and sold a lot of stuff across the country. The store took up an entire block.

" in the reorganization of the Shapleigh firm in January, 1901, as the Norwell-Shapleigh Hardware Company. The offices of the new firm were Saunders Norvell, president -- Richard W. Shapleigh, William G. Yantis and Taylor D. Kelley, vice presidents -- Alfred Lee Shapleigh, treasurer -- and Harry B Gordon, secretary. A spacious, fireproof building was erected on the block bounded by Washington Avenue, Lucas Avenue, Third and Fourth Streets."

http://shapleigh0.tripod.com/shapleighfamilyassociation/id13.html

 

[Billy Jack]

Thanks for all you guys help.

SOLD for $225 and appropriately headed back to St. Louis.