Holyoake-Lownes of Memphis, Tennessee was an importer of English made derringer type guns with his name surcharged on the barrel. I have heard of one gun only with this marking and it of course has English proof marks but has positive features of a genuine Henry Deringer gun.
A description of the only known gun is as follows: The round barrel with the rib on top is rifled and is caliber .490. Barrel length is 3⅝” and the overall length is 7¾”. Two silver bands at breech. Oval silver wedge escutcheons. Monogram plate in the shape of a rectangle with clipped corners. German silver fore end cap is made for loading rod. Eight cornered daisy design German silver butt cap.
This company advertised guns for sale in the “Memphis Daily Appeal” of Wednesday, May 4, 1853.
The top flat of the barrel is marked in one line with one die stamp “Holyoake-Lownes & Co. Memphis.”
F. SCHUMANN
#201 F. Schumann is identified as a maker of derringers by old newspaper accounts. None of my collector friends or dealer friends have ever heard of or seen a genuine Schumann derringer and I am indeed fortunate in obtaining this specimen of a barrel whose caliber is .410 and is full octagon. This barrel turned up in Memphis about twenty-five or thirty years ago in an old gun shop where it was obtained and kept in a collection thereafter. It has never been on a gun and still shows the old original file marks.
E. R. SIEBER
#286 Sieber of Nashville, Tennessee is virtually unknown among my gun collector friends and dealers until this gun turned up in Norman Flayderman’s catalog in 1970. It is definitely Nashville made with the characteristics of those guns in the full octagon barrel, the escutcheon plate under the forearm holding the screw to attach the barrel, and the lack of engraving. The buttcap, sideplate, nameplate on the wrist, and escutcheons are of German silver. The trigger guard, believe it or not, is of brass and appears to be original. The barrel is a little different in that the bottom half is rounded with the top half octagon. To say this another way, there are three octagon flats at the top of the barrel with the other part underneath rounded. There is a gold blow-out plug on the breechplug. Two bands at the breech are of gold and silver and one silver band at the muzzle. It is a shame, but someone in the past has sand-papered the barrel which is in extra fine condition. They saw the old brown color and thought they were removing rust when actually the gun had original browning on the barrel and some smart fellow removed all of it. I would call this a high quality but plain derringer. Its caliber is .440.