Goulcher Percussion Locks

[VA HUNTER]

I own two original half stock rifles both with Goulcher percussion locks. I find the engraved game scenes on these locks to be pretty interesting and while both are similar, they are not identical. I have viewed many examples online but have never found one that matches the two I have.

Does anyone have info on whether the engraved designs were ever repeated or are each very individual?

VA HUNTER

[rich pierce]

I thought I heard somewhere that they were stamped or rolled on, not cut, on later percussion locks. Is this possible?

[VA HUNTER]

Rich, I am sure you are correct. No way hand engraving could have been possible for these economy locks.

VA HUNTER

[Seth Isaacson]

They are stamped/rolled. They aren't all the same, but a lot of them match each other. The differences might be different eras, multiple stamps being used in the same shop, etc.

[Hungry Horse]

 Goulcher marked locks also run the gamut from very basic low quality, to good commercial quality, with half cock notches, and tumbler bridles, and on rare occasions a fly in the tumbler.

Hungry Horse

[JV Puleo]

The Goulchers/Golchers were an English lock making family with different members located in Wednesbury and  Darleston, by far the two most prolific gun lock manufacturing towns. One member of the family emigrated to the US and he also advertised that he "made" locks. If he actually did, I think it far more likely he imported unfinished parts  from England and assembled them here. He is very likely the "lockmaker" referred to in John Dent Goodman's testimony to a Parliamentary committee investigating the gun trade in 1854.

See English Provincial Gunmakers by Bailey & Nye...

[Bob Roller]

A "fly"in a Goulcher lock when new is rare and so are half cocked positions.There were utility grade locks and I have coped them but only by request** and those I made were better material and much closer tolerances.The "engraving"was rolled on and it does dress up the lock appearance a good bit.** The requests were few  and far between.
Bob Roller

[Seth Isaacson]

Bob, I've handled a lot of guns with Goulcher locks, and many of them definitely had half-cock positions. Are you saying the half-cock notches were added by gunsmiths?

[rich pierce]

I’d not be surprised if locks made by the barrel in Birmingham and in Belgium were stamped “Goulcher” with no connection to anyone of that name. So, many variants.

[JV Puleo]

I'd expect that the English Goulcher locks were actually made by the Birmingham lock making family and that if there are Belgian copies, which is very likely, it was just a matter of using a well known name. I know this is the case with the Belgian-made Ketland locks and guns.

[VA HUNTER]

Thanks everyone, I learned a bit here.

Jeff

[Daryl]

Belgium "copies" of gun maker's names and guns  mostly smoothbore in the 19th and 20th century was widespread.
I fo not know when this started, but possibly much earlier than the middle of the 19th century.
FIREARMS OF THE AMERICAN WEST contains a copy of a notice by W Greener about counterfeit guns from Belgium with the name W. GREENER on them as the maker. That was mid 1800's.

[JV Puleo]

I believe the Belgian copies started entering the American market after the War of 1812, probably around  1815/1816. Prior to that, from the time the French overran the Austrian Netherlands (which encompassed what we call Belgium) to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, there was virtually no export of arms since the French absorbed all of the gunmaking expertise for their armies.

[Daryl]

That makes sense.