Once more thing - what can you guys tell me about Lovena?
I was hoping that someone would have additional info. Janecek of Praha seems to be somehow involved. Take this with a couple grains of salt as info is somewhat difficult to find or vet. But circa 1930 F. Janccek had facilities in Reichenberg and Praha and was somehow connected to Lovena. I can’t say if F. Janccek/Janecek/Jancek’s Lovena was one in the same but there are some catalogues for sale:
Lovena Büchsenmacher-Fachunternehmungen from
http://www.ilab.org/db/book2445_A%202414.html .
If it was Frantisek Janecek, he was born in Klaster in January 1878 and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army duing WWI and transfered for a brief stint in the Czechoslovakian Army in 1919 before founding a percision tool & die shop in Mnichovo Hradiste, which failed and sent him back to making weapons, ammo and transport vehicles in Prague. There must have been some sort of conneciton.
Lovena appears to have migrated toward airguns, auto components, springs, etc.:
http://www.lovena.vyrobce.cz/ http://www.spcr.cz/en/dynamic/clen_detail.php?vyrobek=361100&sel=1 (select "Production" to see ammo & weapons")
At some point Lovena had a warehouse in Ostrava, and possibly other locations, but became a People’s Cooperative for Gun making/Rifle making, previously being a "Hunting Arms Dealership" or firearms merchant which may explain the guns made in Belgium. Early on they seemed to have sourced components from England.
From what little I know of it, the monetary assets of the makers were commandeered by the State. Possibly for a statue amount of time the State may have allowed the original makers, or their heirs and assigns, to maintain their shop and continue production. The in the 1950s or 1960s it appears to have been nationalized and headed in the direction of a Communist people's cooperative.
In the 1960s and 1970s, orders for new cutlery and guns were taken at the various satellite offices, possibly in other cities beside Prague such as Plzen, and processed at the Lovena facility at the supervision of a master of sorts. Small tasks such as sharpening and repair were performed at the satellite shops. A copy of the "Czechoslovak Cooperator" from the 1960s or 1970s possibly would shed some light on the subject.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
