Nov 2, 2007 - The serial number is pretty short!! I have been in contact with Graham Greener the Great-grandson of WW and he says it is too old for.

Tom, given its serial number (33517), your gun was completed in 1891, according to the appendix referenced at the back of Graham Greener's The Greener Story. With respect to the time consumed from start to eventual completion, this depended on the gun's grade: Higher grades required more attention and time. For example, my self-acting ejector G60 grade 'Royal' needed some 7-months before it was completed the following year. The building of lesser grades by Greener took much less time and was performed in a different area of the Greener factory. Only the best, specially selected craftsmen (10-12 men) built Greener's higher grade guns in a wholly separate area of the factory.

Without informing photographs of your gun, however, I am at a loss to correctly identify it. Although, I would venture to guess that it is a Facile Princeps self-acting ejector or perhaps a 'Unique' action-ed gun, based solely on the fact that these candidates were in production at time your gun was completed. The 'Triple Wedge Fast' action refers to Greener's strengthening employment of Purdey-patented double underlugs/bites and the Greener carefully fitted cross-bolt in combination with a precisely bored barrel extension. The 'sterling steel' likely refers to a type of or marketing name for its damascus barrels.

Greener's damascus barrels, by the way, if in good condition and possessed of sufficient wall thicknesses, especially those used on the company's higher grade guns, are perfectly serviceable to-day if one uses low-pressure cartridges of correct length. Greener used a high percentage (70%, as I recall) of steel in his damascus barrels. The lack of a safety is a puzzler, which might, as you conjecture, indicate an intended purpose as a pigeon gun or possibly, I would add, as a fowler. Hopefully, Graham Greener can provide you a model number as well as a customer name. At all events, as has been previously suggested, you might want to post clear photographs of your gun here, in order to benefit from the combined knowledge and opinion of this site's well-versed correspondents. Regards, Edwardian.

I sent a letter off to WW Greener and got back this response. Kind of interesting. Records are kept of every gun they make since 1829.

Dear Mr Abissi, You have an unusual W W Greener shotgun serial number 30492. The barrelled action 'in the white’ was bought in from Bentley & Plairfair, another Birmingham gunmaker, in October 1888, however, it was stocked and finished by our company on 1 st January 1889. It has an Anson & Deeley type action and is a 12 bore with 30 inch Damascus barrels. The shape of the action is unlike the A & D type we made in house since it has a narrow fence and a large distance between the fences and head of the stock. The gun weighed 7 lbs and had modified chokes.

It was ordered by a Mr Garlside. It was unusual for our company to buy in partially made guns from another gunmaker although I have noted a couple of other instances at different times and there may be more in our voluminous archives bearing in mind we made hundreds of thousands of guns between 1829 and the present day. The gun is old and has been refinished by another at some time between being made and today since we have no record of the gun having been returned to the company for any subsequent repairs/servicing since it left the factory in 1889. I attach some notes on condition which I hope will be helpful. If you want to know more about the history of our company or the guns we made there are two books available on line at Kind regards Graham N Greener Director W W Greener (Sporting Guns) Limited The Mews, Hagley Hall, Hagley, Stourbridge, DY9 9LG, United Kingdom.