HISTORY OF JOHN DICKSON & SON
John Dickson &Son was a prestigious Scottish gunmaker from Edinburgh, specialising in highest-quality, bespoke sporting rifles and shotguns. The company was successively owned by three generations of men, all named John Dickson. The founder, John Dickson the 1st, was apprenticed to the Edinburgh gunmaker James Wallace in 1806 when he was just 12 years old and eventually became Wallace’s workshop foreman.
Wallace must have been a very good teacher and mentor as the guns built by Dickson were of exceptional quality, crafted to the highest standards of workmanship and often fully engraved. In 1838, Dickson opened his own business at 60 Princes Street, Edinburgh, producing about 15 firearms per year.
By 1848, Dickson had expanded to such adegree that he needed more space. Hence, he moved to the next-door address of 63 Princes Street, Wallace’s old shop, from which he operated until 1928. This is the address found on most Dickson trade labels and is also the shop that had the famous stuffed male lion in the display window. Little boys would gather in the street and stare through the window in awe of the lion, which eventually became something of a Dickson trademark.
John Dickson the 2nd served his apprenticeship under his father from 1833 to 1840 and afterwards joined him in the shop. By 1851, the firm was building 50 firearms per year and employing 15 gunmakers. Production numbers increased very slightly over the years, with an average of about 70 and never more than 120 firearms per year – still a very low number, indicating the bespoke nature of the business.
The company traded well until after WWI, when John Dickson the 3rd sold it in 1923. Being