Fair condition example of a William Powell and Son Birmingham made side by side. Proofed between 1925 and 1954, this gun carries the marks to be expected from a gun of this age. However, the barrels are still in very good mechanical condition, as are the ejectors and the firing pins.

In the 19th Century, the home of British gunmaking was Birmingham, with a production twice that of London, and exceeding the combined total of France’s 10 government arsenals. It was in the dawn of that century, in 1802, that William Powell and Joseph Simmons established a partnership which would last 10 years. It was just over a decade later that Powell lobbied for a Birmingham Proof House, which was established in 1813 – surprising, given that the independent testing of gun barrels started in London as early as 1637. At the peak of the Birmingham gun trade, in 1862, more than one million barrels were tested. The family connection to the Proof house is unbroken, and is continued to this day by William Powell’s great-great grandson, Peter Powell. 

In 1875, the appearance of the Anson & Deeley boxlock action sounded the death knell of the hammer gun. Two years later, Powell adapted the lifter latch to an A&D gun. A decade later, ejectors appeared on and shortly thereafter came the first sidelock built on the lifter patent. The modern game gun had reached its highest evolutionary stage. The most significant difference between a late 19th and an early 21st century Powell gun is that production has moved abroad.