https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id ... GIhfguSXXQ

 

Your gun is what is referred to as a "Trade Brand Name"shotgun. A "Trade Brand Name" shotgun is one that was made by a major maker (and before 1940) for and was sold by a wholesale sporting goods dealer, a retail chain store or an independent retailer who chose the name to go on the gun. Guns with the name AMERICAN GUN COMPANY and AMERICAN GUN CO. (you say COMPANY and the picture shows CO.) were both made by the Crescent Fire Arms Company of Norwich,CT (1892 to 1931). Guns with the name AMERICAN GUN COMPANY were made for and sold by Sears Roebuck of Chicago,Il and those with the name AMERICAN GUN CO. (abbreviated ) were made for and sold by the Supplee Biddle Hardware Company of Philadelphia a wholesale sporting goods dealer. There is no problem with the serial number. Crescent serial numbers were all in sequence no matter who the gun was made for and serial number 354555 was made in 1916. Value? Everyone wants to know. "Trade Brand Name" shotguns were inexpensive (read cheap) even when new selling for $15 to $25 and they haven't appreciated that much since. Value will depend on the guns condition, the amount of original finish remaining on the metal and wood as well as the mechanical condition. A prime condition example that appears to have come out of the factory yesterday afternoon might bring as much as $125 while a rusty rotten piece of junk that a salvage yard wouldn't accept without major repairs might bring as little as $10 for parts. Most I have seen sold on the various gun auction sites have sold for between $50 and $95. CAUTION!!! The gun is almost 100 years old and was made using the technology and metallurgy of the times when it was made and for the ammunition in use back then which was either black powder or very early low pressure smokeless powder and lead shot loaded 2 1/2 inch shells. They were not designed for more modern high pressure smokeless powder and steel shot loaded 3 inch or magnum shells. While the gun may be still fired if in a good mechanical condition and using appropriate ammo if examined by a good competent gunsmith and OK'd, I can't recommend it.

 

Additional information: If the gun is named AMERICAN GUN COMPANY OF NEW YORK or AMERICAN GUN COMPANY N.Y. all the previous information still applies but the seller was the H & D. Folsom Company of New York, New York a large wholesale and retail sporting goods dealer. Incidentally H & D Folsom owned Crescent Fire Arms Company and what ever Folsom wanted Crescent made and what they wanted was a lot of inexpensive (read cheap) shotguns fast.

 

Ned, you're a vault of information and I appreciate it.
Thanks-Gary

 

I totally disagree with what Ned is saying. Whether it is Co. or Company or has New York spelled out or abreviated NY. They are all guns made by and marketted by H. D. Folsom Arms Co. of New York City. H & D Folsom Arms Co. seemed to use this name from the late 1890s to after WW-I when they reverted to using the Crescent Fire Arms Co. name on the guns they produced at the factory in Norwich. It is just a matter of the roll stamp they were using on the day a given gun was produced.

Magazine ad from April and May 1905 -- Company spelled out --

H & D Folsom Arms Co. catalogue No. 18 -- Co. --

H & D Folsom Arms Co. used the name American Gun Co. or Company or Crescent Fire Arms Co. on the guns they marketted and the guns they sold to others who did not specify their own "trade brand". In addition to the American Gun Co. and Crescent Fire Arms Co. names there are hundreds of "trade brand" names found on these same guns from the factory in Norwich from Acme to WYCO. The list names found on these guns that the late Joe Vorisek published in 1987 was 2 1/2 pages two columes to the page single spaced.

Ned also continues to say that Crescent Fire Arms Co. operated to 1931, when it is an established fact that H & D Folsom Arms Co. sold the factory in Norwich to J. Stevens Arms Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Savage Arms Corp. in 1930. J. Stevens Arms Co. combined it with their recently acquired Davis-Warner Arms Corp. and incorporated Crescent-Davis Arms Corp. which operated in Norwich until it went belly-up in 1935. The remains were then moved to the J. Stevens Arms Co. factory in Chicopee Falls, Mass. and a line of Crescent-Davis guns were marketted as an even cheaper than their Springfield Arms Co. guns line until WW-II. From 1938 --

 

I have same shotgun but mine says Folsom arms co new york and that's it

 

Crescent Fire Arms Company of Norwich,Ct existed fro 1892 to 1938 and perhaps later. It was owned by H & D Folsom Company of New York City from 1893 to 1930 when it was sold to a subsidiary of the Savage Arms Company called Savage Products Distributing who continued to make shotguns with the Crescent name. Folsom, a large wholesale and retail sporting goods dealer and gun jobber bought Crescent to supply it with inexpensive shotguns. And they did that very well making over 2,500,000 shotguns of all types using over 650 known "Trade Brand Names". Folsom claimed in their catalogs that they made the guns. Folsom did not have any manufacturing facilities other than the Crescent Plant in Norwich but I guess they could make that claim since they owned the factory. Most writers and researchers including my self credit all those names to Crescent AMERICAN GUN CO, AMERICAN GUN CO OF NEW YORK and AMERICAN GUN COMPANY OF N.Y. were names used by Folsom on guns they sold. I have no idea how they determined what name was used and when, on which gun.

 

I've seen, don't own, one H & D Folsom Arms Co. catalogue, attributed to 1910, in which they brand their Norwich factory output with the Folsom Arms Co. name --

I have both earlier and later H & D Folsom Arms Co. catalogues using the American Gun Co./Company name.