Revolvers and pistols from E to G
Armand Etienne pistol from Liege
Whose address is on a hard bag,
Where is death packaged?
Who is the bullet for?
Where is she going to fly to today?
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(October 19, 1833 – June 24, 1870).
Where is death packaged?
Who is the bullet for?
Where is she going to fly to today?
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(October 19, 1833 – June 24, 1870).
Little-known revolvers and pistols from “A” to “Z”. So, today we are considering not even two, but three letters of the Latin alphabet: E, F and G.
The reason is simple: not all gunsmiths whose last names begin with these letters made revolvers and pistols. Or they did, but they were copies of someone else’s weapons, and there was absolutely nothing original or interesting in them.
Others - and these are the majority - glorified their names with hunting rifles, but had nothing to do with pistols and revolvers. Someone made flintlock pistols - for us this is too equal. Some are single-shot - sports or dueling. Well, what's interesting about them?
And since our selection criteria are quite strict, we will inevitably have to pass by simply a huge number of all kinds of “trunks”. However, what remains for us should be enough for a full story about the very interesting designs of Belgian gunsmiths, which are simply unknown to most people today.
Armand Etienne's pistol from Liege, disassembled
Trademark of Armand Etienne's company
So, first in line is a certain Armand Etienne from Liege with his 6,35 mm Browning pistol and a 7-round magazine. Equipped with a manual safety on the left rear side and nothing else notable except for the impressive trademark. Arman registered it in 1917, but his company produced the pistol shown in the photo from 1925 to 1932, based on the 1906 Browning pistol.
An absolutely stunning model of a Colt Model 1860 revolver, custom made by Belgian manufacturer Alain Lapierre
Engraving of the cylinder of a Vagar revolver by Pierre Joseph
The 7-mm capsule revolver attributed to Fagard Pierre Joseph is unremarkable except for... the engraving on its cylinder. A theme that would be quite suitable on a hunting rifle, but is hardly appropriate on a weapon such as a revolver. Moreover, no one has ever gone hunting with a seven-millimeter revolver.
Bulldog revolver manufactured by Fungus and Klemet. Six-shot, double action, otherwise completely unremarkable
Revolver manufactured by Falis and Trapmann
There is, perhaps, only one thing original about it: an adjustable hammer striker. Why he was needed like that is unknown.
As for the company, it is known that Francois Louis Falis was responsible for mechanics and applied for patents, and Gustave Trapmann gave money. This revolver was not widely used.
Fliegenschmidt Max revolver of the Smith and Wesson system with a drum for five rounds of 8 mm caliber
The trigger without a trigger guard is slightly curved and retracts into the frame. The revolver frame is opened using a button located in the same way as in the original sample. The trigger is hidden in the body. The handles are made of ebony and are held in place by a central screw.
Interestingly, his front sight is located in the middle of the barrel. This means that this revolver had to be supplied to Austria, where there was a law prohibiting the import of short-barreled revolvers. However, the law did not prohibit owning them. So industrialists came up with the idea of importing revolvers with long barrels. And at that time it was possible to cut the barrel according to the front sight in any weapons workshop and even at home.
August Francotta Webley-Price revolver, double action, .450 caliber
But this revolver with a “cannon barrel” from the A. Fredericks company is a “German Bulldog” type revolver, as indicated by the “Reich Revolver” type safety (1914)
Charles-François Galand's name also begins with "G", and it can be reported that, as a French citizen (1832-1900), he worked in Liege and Paris, and his son René continued his father's work until 1942. Galan himself was a prolific manufacturer of revolvers, civilian and military.
He is primarily known for his revolver, called the "Galand-Sommerville" or "Galand-Perrin", after the large cap cartridge used in many of his revolvers. He is also known as the inventor of the famous "velodog" (registered on April 20, 1904 by Rene Galant), the "Novo" revolver and the "Tu-Tu" revolver.
The Galan revolver (“Galan-Sommerville” or “Galan-Perrin”) is a double-action revolver with an open frame, patented in 1868.
Luxurious Galana revolver
Its main feature was a lever located under the barrel and frame, which also served as a trigger guard. When this lever was used, the barrel and drum moved forward. During movement, the extractor plate is locked and the barrel continues to move forward. Therefore, the cartridges held by the extractor plate fall out of the drum and can be replaced with new cartridges. The lever then moves back into place, the barrel and drum move back, and it closes and locks.
The revolver is called a "Galan-Perrin" when it fires the 7,9mm and especially the 12mm Perrin cartridge. The first examples of this revolver were made in Great Britain at the Birmingham arms factory, which was managed by Brandlin and had its own production of these revolvers, which was a great success.
"Galan-Premier", Type 2
In France, many officers were tempted by this new automatic revolver and began to buy it.
The Russian Imperial Navy adopted the Galan revolver on March 12, 1871 under the name “Boarding revolver pistol of the 1870 model. It should be noted that although the number of ordered copies is not indicated, the revolver was manufactured not only by Galana, but also by N. Vivario Plomber, Varnan and Nagan, and N. I. Goltyakov in Tula.
Galan "Novo" folding revolver, 6,35 mm caliber
But after a series of failures with weapons for the army, Galan switched to the civilian market, and it was there that in 1892/93 he demonstrated his simplest hammerless revolver “Tu-Tu” with an open frame. These weapons were produced until about 1935, mostly in the 8mm 1892 caliber.
The “Tu-Tu” revolver had no protruding trigger, no “Abadi door”, no ramrod... nothing!
The “Tu-Tu” revolver in disassembled form: the cartridge cases were knocked out of the drum on the axis of the drum!
And this Belgian pistol by Armand Gavage was even in service with the German army during the Second World War
A very unusual and, one might even say, funny revolver with a horizontal cylinder. A certain G. Guy de Wottem received a patent for it, but he transferred his patent to H. Genhart from Liege. And he began producing this revolver, and even released a luxury version.
But since it did not have any real advantages over revolvers with a traditional drum arrangement (except that the flame between the drum and the barrel did not hit in all directions when fired), it never gained popularity.
Revolver of H. Genhart. Left view. The hole for the release of gases from the drum during firing and the lever for turning the drum are clearly visible
Revolver of H. Genhart. View of the drum socket and the drum itself
H. Genhart's revolver of clearly pretentious execution
Engraving on the cylinder of a Colt Dragoon revolver, which was produced in Belgium by Jacques Nicolas Gilon. The most interesting thing about this revolver is, of course, the engraving of its cylinder, which depicts a fight between American soldiers armed with revolvers and Indians
Here it is, this engraving on the drum and the name of the engraver who made it...
"Gussens Henri and Fils" - saber-revolver chambered for pin cartridges. A completely unexpected weapon for the mid-XNUMXth century. Well, it would be nice if it were the XNUMXth century, when ax-pistols, six-point pistols, horn pistols were in fashion... However, even at that time, as you can see, there was a lover of such “rarities”!
The handle of a saber pistol. The trigger and hammer are clearly visible. It was most likely simply inconvenient to use such a weapon
In general, what kind of revolvers, and pistols too, were not produced by Belgian gunsmiths with surnames starting with E, F and G.
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 ...
Information