clayman Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 Looking for more info on Henry (Harry) Morris guns. Info I have so far is he was located at 10 1/2 St Mary's Row, Birmingham and was a master engraver who bought guns in the white , scroll / game scene engraved and finished them off to retail them as Henry Morris guns. Does anyone have info on the underlying makers he used? Cogswell and Harrison seems a possibility, as does Webley and Scott. I have recently acquired one serial 1957 with 3 Pheasant one side and 4 Grouse the other - scroll work around the rest of the action trigger guard etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBS Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 I scoured British Gunmakers Vol One by Nigel Brown last night and found no mention of him im afraid. Have you got any photos? Gb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malkiserow Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Looking for more info on Henry (Harry) Morris guns. Info I have so far is he was located at 10 1/2 St Mary's Row, Birmingham and was a master engraver who bought guns in the white , scroll / game scene engraved and finished them off to retail them as Henry Morris guns. Does anyone have info on the underlying makers he used? Cogswell and Harrison seems a possibility, as does Webley and Scott. I have recently acquired one serial 1957 with 3 Pheasant one side and 4 Grouse the other - scroll work around the rest of the action trigger guard etc. Cosgswell are based near Winsdor and run by an (I think) an ex purdy man plus an academic. Unfortunately I don't have their number but this may help your search Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayman Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ph5172 Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Could it be a BSA base which he bought in , i know BSA used to sell a lot in the white. You could email them they are usually very good at the history things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJN Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Someone else has been down this road a few years back, I found this http://www.internetgunclub.com/phpBB/viewt...7&topic=832 it also helps to search on Harry Morris, as he was sometimes known as. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMarysLane Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 (edited) Gentlemen, first, thank you from across the pond for having this site and special thanks to those interested in engraving and in Henry Morris. Yesterday in a small town in Wisconsin (US) I bought a beautiful little 20 gauge shotgun purely on the basis of its apparent build quality and the beauty of its engraving. It's marked "H. Bissell" on the receiver and "H. Bissell, 10 St. Mary's Row, Birmingham, 4" on the barrels. In trying to find out who did the engraving I came across this site and the discussion here, though I did not have access to the images until a few minutes ago. In a pure stroke of luck, the birds on the right side of the action above are identical to mine, so I thought I would share pictures of my new gun and be available for any questions anyone might have. I'm not sure about uploading pictures here, but I'll give it a whack. If the pictures do not appear, they can be seen in the thread started by the man I bought it from here: http://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=171125&page=1 Best! Mark Edited March 4, 2012 by StMarysLane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackpowder Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Volume 2 of British Gunmakers states that Harry Morris was the last of the old school of Birmingham professional gun engravers. Address given as 10(back of )St Marys Row, Birmingham. Blackpowder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 That is quality engraving on the 20 bore, a nice gu8n to own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 What a lovely looking gun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike525steel Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 A thing of beauty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMarysLane Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Thanks guys! I've been interested in engraving for a good while, so much so I once bought all of the necessary equipment and took a course, but I lacked the endurance to climb that learning curve. I was surprised to find this kind of gun at a small gun show, but when I glanced in the case, I decided to buy it pretty much right off. I was so eager it didn't dawn on me it would have 2 1/2" chambers and almost returned it. After looking into options - lengthening the chambers, etc., I found a vendor for the shorter shells and have three flats of lower pressure ammunition on the way. It has 25" barrels with open chokes (Cyl/IC) so it should make a quick little grouse and woodcock gun, and I'm about 100 miles from the epicenter of grouse country in the US. I'm just tickled to be its new custodian. On the St. Mary's 10.5 address, if you check out the double gun thread I referenced above, someone posted a picture of the shop behind "10", if you're interested. Thanks again and I'll check back periodically to see if there's been any new information added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salopian Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Henry Morris has had numerous little bits written about him by Geoffrey Boothroyd who was a long time friend. Brian Wiseman of Wiseman's of Cannock was Henry Morris's very last apprentice. Brian always speaks in awe of Henry Morris but NEVER calls him Henry or Harry, it is always Mr.Morris. It is my belief that Mr. Morris may never have seen a partridge , pheasant,duck, rabbit or hare in the wild and his engravings were often taken from sketches. If you look at numerous engravings of Mr. Morris of pheasants, the heads never look quite right.It is very possible that any gun labelled as a Henry Morris could possibly have been made by Frank Wiseman when he worked at Skimmin & Wood or it could have been a F.Williams who did use Morris as an engraver a lot.In the 1950's you could have a choice of numerous local gunmakers around St.Mary's Street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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