A.A. Brown & Sons is not well known. Even though their Supreme de Luxe double barrel was just named one of the best British guns of the last 60 years, few people have heard of this gunmaker’s name.
This is understandable. Since opening 1938, many of A.A. Brown & Sons’s double barrels have been made for the trade. Through the 1950s-1960s, side-by-sides “made” by firms like Holland & Holland and E. J. Churchill were manufactured in Birmingham by A.A. Brown & Sons. This Westley Richards sidelock was also made by by them.
Today, A.A. Brown & Sons makes best-quality side-by-sides under their own name. The Supreme de Luxe is their sidelock. It’s hand made to the highest quality and almost all the work is done in house. Only the raw bbl tubes and the engraving are farmed out. A.A. Brown & Sons even makes their own locks and does their own color case hardening.
Currently, the base price for new Supreme de Luxe is £38,000 (+ engraving) — expensive, but cheaper than the £62,500 that Holland & Holland wants for a new Royal. A.A. Brown & Sons builds just a few Supreme de Luxes a year and the wait list for them is long. So when a nice used one comes up, it’s usually sold before pictures of it can be taken.
This nearly-new 12g was just available. It’s price — £24,000 — is steep, but more than 50% below the price of a new one.
Images by Matthew Brown Photography, c. 2012
Hi Gregg, Thanks for posting all this about my firm, much appreciated, you must have spent quite some time doing it. The colour hardened A A Brown you feature has been sold at the end of May. The other WR gun you refer to as possibly being made by Browns was, in fact, not made by us. Thank you also for referring to my sons photography website. The url for that has to have a hyphen or you go to another site, that of a photographer in the States, aslo called Matthew Brown. The correct one for looking at his gun galleries is http://www.matthewbrown-photography.com I can see that you got the correct link mind you which shows you did your research correctly. Doug Tate emailed me earlier to draw my attention to your blog entry, he also mentioned Gavin Gardiners press release for his next auction in Scotland that will include the A A Brown Jubilee pair one of which featured on the Shooting Gazette cover this month. Again. Many thanks, regards. Robin brown.
Hello Robin-
Thank you for your note. I appreciate your input and love your guns. I updated the post, so everything should be correct now. I’ll keep an eye out for the Jubilee Pair. I’m sure Gavin Gardiner will do well with them.
Please let me know when any other Supreme de Luxes come on the market.
Gregg