Revolvers and a pistol starting with the letter "B"
A 9mm Bayeux Brothers Revolver with floral engraving and distressed gold inlays on the cylinder, barrel, grip, trigger guard and frame. The entire frame and barrel are made from one piece of steel, which is quite rare. The left side of the barrel is marked "Bayet F-res Brevete". Six-chamber drum. Barrel length: 118 mm
Maybe in swamp Bengal,
Where everything turns to dust
Perhaps in the mountains of the Transvaal,
Perhaps - in the Afghan mountains,
By the black Sudanese wells
On the fast Burmese river
One day you happen to
To stand on the bloody sand.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(October 19, 1833 – June 24, 1870).
Where everything turns to dust
Perhaps in the mountains of the Transvaal,
Perhaps - in the Afghan mountains,
By the black Sudanese wells
On the fast Burmese river
One day you happen to
To stand on the bloody sand.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(October 19, 1833 – June 24, 1870).
ancient weapon from A to Z. Last time we looked at revolvers starting with the letter “A”. Today we have the second letter of the alphabet – “B”. There were a lot of Belgian gunsmiths with this letter. But basically they mostly made hunting rifles. Very beautiful, with carved locks and triggers, but still guns, and we are only interested in “short barrels”, and today we continue the story about just such weapons, and even one pistol has crept into our “revolver row”.
Industrialists, naturally, saw the best examples of these weapons and sought to copy them. But copying designs protected by a patent, and often not just one, but several, and even obtained in different countries, was not at all easy. We had to dodge and come up with ways to circumvent the patents.
It could have been done differently: choose a suitable model, prepare it for mass production, develop a technology that would reduce the cost of production as much as possible, and... wait! Wait until the patent protection period expires so that literally the next day you can release a cheaper analogue of the patented product. They did the same thing, and there are a lot of similar designs of the same revolvers.
And, of course, the appearance. The same revolver could be produced with a nickel-plated or blued body. The body and drum could be covered with carvings and engravings. Silver-plated and gold-plated cases are known. The handles could be made of wood, including valuable species, rubber and ivory (and just bone), as well as mother-of-pearl. That is, again, the calculation was that the consumer has very different tastes, and some will like a blued revolver, while others will like one decorated with rough and tacky carvings, and even silver-plated. Montegero revolvers, for example, were even finished with silver plates and decorated with corals.
So, the first on our list will be some Bayeux brothers.
Belgians, gunsmiths who produced a wide variety of weapons. And in particular, Lefoshe system revolvers of 9 mm caliber chambered for a pin cartridge. But at the same time, they tried to bring something of their own into its design.
The same revolver of the Bayeux brothers. “Abadi door” with a hairpin handle
Another Bayeux brothers revolver of 9 mm caliber and a very unusual design
By rotating the ejector rod 110 degrees downward, the barrel and cylinder can be moved forward
Then, by turning the stem, you can rotate it back to its normal position. In this case, the barrel and drum are fixed, and empty cartridges can be removed from it. Double action revolver. Barrel length 105 mm, total length 138 mm
Bayeux brothers 7mm revolver
The revolver was disassembled in a very unusual way...
They also released a knife-revolver chambered for Lefoshe (patent dated March 24, 1865)
Under the barrel it had a boss on which a spring-loaded double-edged blade was attached. It could be opened, or it could be folded. In the photo it is folded
The second revolver chambered for centerfire cartridges is a reworking of the Lefoshe system, the ammunition for which is outdated. The frame has been redesigned to allow the modified hammer to engage the cartridge primer. The pin grooves at the rear of the drum have been removed. Handle grips made of carved vulcanized rubber
“Abadi door” on a revolver before conversion for centerfire cartridges
A very original revolver knife, marked with the initials BS. It is believed that this may be Bertrand Simon, but this is not certain
Bertrand Antoine and Fils "Terrefic" revolver, with five-round cylinder, .320 caliber, chrome plated, with cheap floral engravings, ivory grip and cylinder hinged to the right
Drum tilted to the right...
Bertrand Antoine and Fils also produced Montenegro revolvers, popular in Europe, although not as large in size as in the Balkans
“Francott ears”, fastening the upper assembly of the folding frame on the Montenegro revolver
Joseph Bertrand's "Firearms Factory" (apparently, it was some relative of Antoine) produced a six-shooter "Bulldog" revolver in 1918. The ramrod rotates on an axis, and the spent cartridges are pushed out. The trigger is inside the oval trigger guard. On the left side of the case there is a Mauser type fuse.
In addition to revolvers, Joseph's company also produced hunting rifles of the most beautiful type. Bertrand also produced automatic weapons, but the German occupation of Liege in 1914 forced him to close his factory. He also developed several models of 6,35 mm pistols, which had names such as “Le Rapide”, “Continental”, “Le Novo”. A special feature of the pistols was that the barrel and frame were cast as one part. The bolt is operated by a spring inserted into a cylinder above the barrel.
Pistol "Le Rapid". Right view
Pistol "Le Rapid". Left view
Knife-pistol "Ouvrier" ("worker"). A very beautiful small pistol knife, 8 mm caliber, combined with a folding blade (115 mm) and a corkscrew (52 mm). All metal parts are nickel plated. It had one barrel running along the handle. Bone handle. Rawhide leather case. Under the plate is engraved the name of the manufacturer - Liege manufactory Bodin L. without any other precise details
Revolver "Bulldog" from Bonson & Arents & Co. An ordinary Bulldog type revolver without any special features. It is known about the company itself that in 1886 it registered three patents, in particular, for a revolving system
Revolver "Pappy" company "Brock and Scholberg"
Brock & Scholberg was founded in 1856 by Alfonso Brock from Montevideo and Clementine Zuider Scholberg from Liege. This is a unification of interests across an entire ocean.
The first firearms began arriving in Uruguay from B&S in the late 1870s and were in great demand there. The company ceased to exist in 1936, but some of its employees continued to work until the end of World War II at the enterprise under the romantic name Casa Coqueiro (“House of Palm Trees”).
It is interesting that samples of weapons from this company are still found in South America today, but they are valued very expensively and are considered very rare.
Revolver of Jules Berry
Six-round drum, .320 caliber. The barrel is octagonal with a crescent-shaped front sight. Loading through the “Abadi door”. Discharge is carried out using a cleaning rod on the right side of the frame. Trigger without trigger guard. The handle covers are made of two walnut pieces held together with a cross screw and two rivet washers with lugs. The drum axle can be removed, and then the drum can be removed and charged separately.
Jules Berry revolver with the cylinder removed from the frame
Next time we will have a weapon starting with the letter “C”...
PS
The author and administration of the site would like to thank Alain Dobres (littlegun.be) for the opportunity to use his materials.
To be continued ...
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