In response to a guy who has an N.R. Davis double in really good condition, these two responses were given:
First Response:
A brief History...In 1888, George Cilley bought out a defunct company called Bacon Arms Company of Norwich, Conneticut. Shortly afterwards Cilley and a gentlemn by the name of Foster, borrowed money and formed the Crescent Fire Arms Company and merged their individual patents for firearms designs and manufacturing. They started up with single shot tip-up shotguns but then started building double barrel shotguns in 1891
In 1929, N.R. Davis Firearms Company merged with Crescent to become Cresent-Davis Arms Corporation. Because of poor business practices, Crescent Davis was forced to sell out it's holdings to Savage Firearms in 1931. Savage in turn assembled firearms from parts from the old Crescent- Davis inventory and sold them exclusively using the Crescent name . Less than a year later, the City of Norwich, Conneticut, took over the Crescent property for non payment of taxes, and the Norwich facility was forced to close and move to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.
Crescent Firearms Company (That made your Double Barrel Shotgun)was best known for manufactureing what is referred to "House Brand" shotguns and sold to retailers, distributors, mail order houses etc, like Sears & Roebuck, J.C. Penny, Montgomery Wards and others all over the United States. Crescent held over 100+ Trademarks for marketing these "house brand" shotguns. Since these shotguns were mass produced, all the shotguns that exist today are considered "shooters" and have no true collectors value..
Your double barrel shotgun in good to excellent condition is worth between $150-$225.... Source(s):
Source:A Chronolgy of The R.N Davis Firearms Company 1960
Gun Shop Owner-Broker-Dealer-Firearms Appraiser
Avid Lifetime Hunter/NRA Life Member
36 Years Firearms Experience
Second Response:
N.R. Davis. Nathan Russell Davis and sons. N.R. Davis & Co. started making good quality guns around the middle of the 1850's or thereabouts. Sometime in the early 1880's it became "& Sons".and they made shotguns in Mass. up until 1917 when they merged with Warner Arms to form Davis-Warner Arms Co.
Yours being marked "& Sons" means it's from about 1885-1917.....long before the Crescent days.
They went on to merge with Crescent (Folsom) in 1930.
They're good guns but they're not really collectible. Yours would probably range in the $200-450 neighborhood.
If there is a question to its reliability, DON'T FIRE IT.
Have it checked out by a gunsmith, this old of a shotgun probably uses low velocity rounds which are quite less powerful than the current shotgun ammo.