You are here: Home > Firearms > Gunmakers > George Gibbs
Source: Trade directory featuring towns around the River Severn. The directory was entitled ‘Progress. Commerce. 1893.’
George Gibbs, Gun and Rifle Manufacturer, 39 Corn Street, Bristol
This large business was founded some fifty or sixty years ago in Thomas Street, and from there was subsequently transferred to 21, Clare Street. In 1858 the firm removed to their present premises at 39, Corn Street. The manufactury, Rupert Hall, St. John’s Bridge, was built in 1875, and the tools and appliances there are most perfect. Mr. George Gibbs has a national reputation for first-class guns and rifles, and his house is one of the very few establishments outside of London and Birmingham where guns and rifles are manufactured throughout. Mr. Gibbs was the inventor of the first hammer-less gun adopted by the public and the trade, and can thus claim the distinction of having influenced the introduction of a type of sporting weapon which is now in universal use. He is also proprietor and sole manufacturer of the Gibbs (Farquharson) Metford Rifles, which have been so successfully used at Wimbledon. Medals gained at Paris in 1867 and 1878, at London in 1862, at Philadelphia in 1876, and at Calcutta in 1883, attest the superior character of the guns and rifles produced by this well-known house. At the recent South Africa and International Exhibition, Mr. Gibbs was the recipient of no less than four gold medals, those being the only gold medals awarded in the class. These were respectively for the Metford sporting rifle, Metford target rifle, the hammerless gun and the best all round exhibit. The stock held at the establishment in Corn Street is one of the largest and best in the trade, and embraces every description of gun, rifle, revolver, &c., for sporting and other purposes. A very large wholesale and retail trade is controlled, a great many prominent noblemen and gentlemen in all parts of England being among the patrons of the house, and the firm also export extensively to South Africa, and also India, Persia, Russia, and Japan, where they have influential connections in the ranks of the most celebrated sportsmen.