The Claudin is great!
You can see that the maker was "forced" to put in the finishing date (1846) because Bernard put his date on the barrels at 1845.
The legion of honor stamp is not there yet, nor is the Paris reference.
I was puzzled about the "Ae 1846" until I realized it meant "Annee": year.
Number 4044 is a very early barrel set.
I believe that the brazing of the lumps on the tubes was a very risky endeavor back then, which means that the barrel assembly was worth quite a bit more than two tubes. The other part is that the rib damascus matches the tubes, so that would be hard to do if things were not assembled at the barrel maker's shop.
Another weird one is that all the books say that proofing was indeed mandatory back then, but Bernard (and Claudin) escaped the rule, somehow.
Keeps them coming!
WC-
