doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Please help identify this Merkel

I picked up a 16 gauge, rabbit-ear side-by-side at a gun show and I would like some help learning more about it. According to the seller, it was made by Merkel in 1914. However, I inquired with Merkel in Germany, which claims to have records going back into the 1920's, and they tell me this serial number (in the mid 35,000's) corresponds to a Model 200-E (an O/U) made in 1952, obviosuly a completely different animal.

This gun appears to be very well used but is in reasonably good condition and shoots fine. It has double trigger, double hammer (pins, not caps), full engraving, horn trigger guard and horn buttplate. The top is marked in gold "E.A. Merkel" on one barrel and "Suhl" on the other and all kinds of markings I'd like to decypher. the number 922 appears on the underside of the barrel assembly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I posted a couple photos to a public photo album on my facebook page - facebook.com/people/Keith-Lavey/517049785

E A Merkel is not the same company as the current Gebruder Merkel. Check the area of proof marks on the flats of the receiver, you should see marks similar to 09/14 if it were proofed in September 1914, 10/14 for October 1914, etc.

Does it have Witten tube steel? Can you post an image of the flats and possibly a description on the stamps by the forend lug and near the Eagle Crown over S? Skeptical of your 1914 date as it wears pre-1912 touchmarks. Have not seen a founding date but let's say 1900 for arguments sake. Ernst August Merkel paired with his son Rudolf Otto Merkel. A couple of E. A.'s brothers, Otto Gottlieb & Louis Franz Ferdinand Merkel were employed for a time. Their shingle was at Rimbachstrasse 17. The 922 is more than likely an assembly number. The serial number seems high and would be that of the sourced concern.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

If that's a Fine Krupp Stahl stamp atop the tubes, it 1st conjures up Ferlach then Liege. What do the locks look like?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

This example is somewhat perplexing. I'm highly confident that the Imperial Eagle on the water is covering a Crown over V, making the action and a set of pattern welded tubes being on-hand in early 1893. Then prior to 1912 E.A. Merkel had a client desiring a set of new fangled fluid steel tubes, which I think he sourced from another mechanic, possibly outside of Germany.


Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Stumbled across some info on the Merkel klan that suggest that E.A.( Ernst August) Merkel, the eldest son of engraver Friedrich Ernst Ferdinand Merkel, was born in 1853. There were 7 sons including E.A. Merkel and all became master gunsmiths. In addition there were 6 sisters who all either married gunmakers or married into gunmaking families. B�chsenmacher Heinrich Gottfried Funk is somehow related and may have been the father-in-law of engraver Friedrich Ernst Ferdinand Merkel since Frau Merkel was the daughter of a gunmaker. Although I strongly suspect that was the case, I'm not positive it was Funk for now. But with 7 sons as gunsmiths, mom just about had to be a gunsmith herself.

1. Ernst August Merkel
2. Otto Gottlieb Merkel.
3. Albert Oscar Merkel
4. Louis Franz Ferdinand Merkel
5. Gebhard Merkel
6. Karl Paul Merkel
7. Bernhard Emil Merkel

1, 2 & 4 were involved in the concern E.A. Merkel(at some point at Rimbachh�gel 1) and a best/earliest guess is that he hung out his gunmaking shingle at the age of 24 years which would have been in 1877 and this would explain those early Merkel examples prior to the founding date of Gebr�der Merkel on September 1st, 1898.

In 1894, 3 & 5 teamed up to form a concern. Circa 1900, possibly just after the founding of Gebr�der Merkel, #7, Bernhard Emil Merkel left the fold and hung out his own shingle that was used by a couple of his grandchildren who followed in his footsteps.

Might be old hat for some, but I found it insightful.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse