Who made Essex shotguns?

The Crescent Gun Company made guns which were sold under assorted brand names back around the turn of the last century. "Essex", "Knickerbocker", "Lakeside", "American Gun Co."; an on-line search will turn up an amazing list of over a hundred names under which these low cost guns were marketed.

In many cases local hardware stores contracted with Crescent to have a small run of guns stamped with their store name. Essentially, anyone who had the cash could have Crescent guns stamped with their own brand name.

These were low budget guns of serviceable quality which have little to no collector value today.