A new chapter in the history of John Dickson & Son
Established in 1820 and renowned as the builder of the Round Action gun, John Dickson & Son, the oldest working gunmaker in Scotland, has recently come under the ownership of Jean-Pierre Daeschler and his wife, Zoe Bucknell. Daeschler, better known in the trade as J-P Daeschler, is a fully trained gunmaker specialising in stock making. He has a vast knowledge of practical gunmaking and a wealth of contacts in the gunmaking world. This change in ownership sets John Dickson & Son apart from the majority of long-established gunmakers, which are now owned by large groups. It is even more unusual for such a firm to be headed by a fully trained gunmaker skilled in all aspects of gun manufacture.
The founder of John Dickson & Son, John Dickson, was born in 1794 in the Old Town of Edinburgh, where his father was a wine bottler in the port of Leith. Aged just 12, he was apprenticed to James Wallace in 1806, a gun-maker on the High Street. Life expectancy was
