Album: Vintage Sporting Dealers

At the turn-of-the-twentieth century, major hardware stores in the East did a land office business in selling side-by-side guns. Murtha Appleton and E.K. Tryon in Philadelphia and William Wagner & Son in Washington, D.C. sold thousands of L.C. Smith, Parker, and Fox guns. A single order from E.K. Tryon in the Parker Bros. order books is 12 pages of legal-sized sheets. Wm. Wagner's store was near the Library of Congress and the U.S. Capitol, and he sold guns to John Phillip Souza, Gen. Billy Mitchell, President Grover Cleveland, and "Marse" Henry Bartholomew. The 1906 William Read & Sons catalogue lists the following guns and prices: "Highest Quality" Wesley Richards with a single trigger for $595, W.W. Greener "Imperial" $500, W&C Scott "Premier" $375, Scott "Imperial Premier" was price on application, Purdey was given at 89 pounds 5 shillings sterling, and the "Highest Quality" sidelock ejector Joseph Lang & Son was 65 guineas. Parker Bros. AAHE-Grade, had a net selling price of $318.75 and the Lefever Optimus had net selling price of $280. The highest priced American gun was the Remington Special at $750.

A few of the documented early 1900s distributors/dealers/hardware stores: Orgill Brothers & Co., Memphis, TN Townley Metal & Hardware Co., Kansas City, MO Belknap Hardware Company, Louisville, KY The Sporting Goods Agencies, Montreal, Canada Schoverling, Daly & Gales, New York, NY Hartley & Graham, New York, NY Schuyler, Hartley & Graham, New York, NY Storrs & Candee Sporting Goods, Hartford , CT McDonald & Linforth, San Francisco, CA Clabrough & Golcher, San Francisco, CA Harder Sporting Goods Co., Williamsport, PA Wm. Read & Sons, Boston, MA John P. Lovell Arms Co., Boston, MA Hurty-Simmons Hardware Co., Minneapolis, MN Janney, Semple, Hill & Co., Minneapolis, MN J. H. Johnson, Great Western Gun Works, Pittsburg, PA Von Lengerke & Antoine, Chicago, IL A. J. Rummel Arms Co., Toledo, OH W. S. Brown, Pittsburg, PA John Pritzlaff Hardware Co., Milwaukee, WI Powell & Clement, Cincinnati, OH Boehme & Rauch Co., Monroe, MI Edward K. Tryon Co., Philadelphia, PA Bolles-Brendamour Co., (possibly Cincinnati, OH) Powell & Clement Co., Cincinnati, OH McCumber-Smith Co., (unknown) Hibbard, Spencer and Bartlett, Chicago, IL E. C. Meacham Arms Co., St. Louis, MO John P. Lovell Arms Co., Boston, MA Paxton & Gallagher Co., Omaha, NE Townsend Gun Co., Omaha, NE Lull & Hartford, Lowell, MA Spalding-Haywood Arms Co., Denver, CO