These pictures are of A.A.Brown & Sons 12 bore Supreme de Luxe 79774 & 79775, a unique pair of guns in Brown history having been worked on by three generations of the Brown gun-making family. The first of these guns was a jointed action in the white waiting for a customer and so had been worked on by both Albert H Brown who jointed in and fitted the lever-work on 79774 and Sidney C Brown who made the sidelocks, as well as Robin Brown who had worked on the original design and specification at that time. When the order did come for a pair, a second gun was made to the same specification, but by this time Albert had passed away and so Albert Royster jointed in and fitted the lever-work to 79775. These are the first Best guns made by the firm to be checkered and oil finished by Matthew Brown, making four members over the three generations to have had a hand in the manufacture. Over the course of building these guns, many people have been involved in their crafting. Chris Kay supplied the chopper lump tubes, Harold Scandrett machined the tubes, ribs and loop as well as machining all components, actions, fore ends, locks and trigger-plates and Tony Smith built up the barrels. At this stage Robin Brown then finished the chambers and rims, filed the actions and prepared for Proof testing before the Birmingham Proof Master proofed the guns with 2 ¾” chambers to 850 bar. Kristian Reilly fitted the locks to the actions, Robin then made and fitted all the mechanism and Haydn Hill carved the beads and shaped the actions to the 'ready for stocking' stage. The stocks were supplied by Jusuf Loznak and stocked by Romain Lepinois before they passed to Matthew Brown for checkering and finishing. Robin then smoothed and polished all the parts requiring engraving before passing them to John Barratt who was the engraver. The engraving is of A.A.Brown & Sons design in close collaboration with the client and the ovals are engraved with the family crests by Philip Duffill. Robin then performed a pre-hardening free and finish before colour case hardening the actions and parts and then coin finishing, lacquering and freeing the mechanism. The best black on the barrels was by Paul Stevens of Stevens & Johnston and the furniture was blacked by Richard and Bob of Ray St. Ledger & Sons. Robin then performed the final assembly and adjustments and then Matthew gave a final waxing to the wood before test firing and photography of the completed guns. This is an interesting story that happens to coincide with Matthew joining the firm as the fourth generation of the family to do so and also at a time when Matthew started photographing so many stages of gun manufacture. It is somewhat fitting that these guns are a 21st birthday present and represent a handing over of knowledge and traditions, not only in their making, but in their future use.
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