Here is Neitir's post on the link posted by Gun Wolf. This translation is not literal but tries to catch the spirit of what Neitir was saying:
(from Neitir) Bonsoir a tous , pour répondre aux interrogations de Fabien , je vais essayer de vous dire ce qu'il en est :
(Good evening everyone, I'm going to try to tell you what this is all about in order to respond to Fabien's questions)
Dans ma jeunesse j'ai travaillé quelques temps comme je vous l'avais dit dans un autre post chez un formidable patron qui hélas du fermer en 1968 . ce regretté patron était les établissements ZAVATTERO qui étaient a cette époque (1962) a Saint Bonnet le Château dans le haut forez . Cet établissement avait été fondé par Louis Zavattero en 1880 qui s'associa avec son frère Joanny et cette maison pris le nom de Zavattero Frères .
(When I was young I worked part time as I said in another post, for an excellent organization which unfortunately closed their doors in 1968. I regret that this was the ZAVETTERO company which was at that time (1962) located in Saint Bonnet le Chateau in the high forez area. This company had been founded by Louis Zavattero in 1880 in association with his brother Jonny and this company used the name "Zavattero Freres.")
Le marquage de cette arme est tout simplement le marquage des fusils produits par les établissements Zavattero Frères et ce fusil est un modéle ZEDEF Focor avec un canon de marque Lovinfosse Hardy fils célèbre canonnier Belge .
(The marks on this arm are quite simply the marks of the the long-guns produced by the Zavattero Freres company and this shotgun is a model ZEDER Focor with a barrel marked by Lovinfosse Hardy and Sons, famous Belgian barrel makers.)
Son Numéro correspond a une production de juillet 1951 , il y a eut deux modéles , le Focor a finition de luxe finition a la pierre et le Focor standard avec bretelle automatique et canons isochromés en option . en calibres 12/16/ 20 et aussi une version en triple verrou type Hélice . Toutes les productions de Zavattero frères étaient équipées de canons de Marque soit belges soit de canons Zavattero Frères dans ce cas marqués ZF .
The number corresponds with a production from July 1951. There were two models, Le Focor with a "de lux" stone finish and the Focor standard with "blued" (not sure - means strap or ramp) automatic and with an option for barrels in the same color. in 12/16/20 chambers and also a version in thriple screw lock (?). All the guns of Zavattero freres were equipped with either Belgian barrels using the Belgian mark or Zavattero Freres barrels marked "ZF".) - comment: I see why we need a gun-centric french-english dictionary: (Note: "triple lock probably refers to the "Helice" lock which you can find on a number of guns in france).
En aucun cas les fusils fabriqués en Tchéquie ont le même marquage , mais un CZ d'une autre forme. Voici une gravure du musée municipal de St Etienne montrant un fusil Focor du même modéle que celui de Fabien .
(In no case did the guns made in Chechoslovakia have the same marks, but rather "CZ" in another script. Here is a print of the municipal museum of St Etienne showing a Focor shotgun, the same model as that of Fabien).
Now it's a little unclear to me....the barrels were either Belgian or Zavattero Freres work which were marked with ZF. So the cursive mark in the circle could well be "LF" or more likely "L Fi" (Lovinfosse Hardy et fils).
Now the question for me is, it appears these barrels have both the ZF and the LFi marks. Strange. Would like to see more examples of the Belgian barrel marks.
The CZ mark is on the other gun....I'll post them all for comparison.
And it's got me wondering about those "Hungarian" BP marks...Lots of Hungarians in Bratislava - now Slovakia but then part of Czechoslovakia. .
Last edited by Argo44; 05/05/16 08:44 PM.
