Paul, I come down in favor of VC action but not a VC gun. No "Verney Carron" on the gun elsewhere and no SN pretty much tells me it wasn't anything that came out of their operation in St. Etienne, even without taking into account the Belgian-proofed barrels. Did something happen to the original barrels and those are replacements? That's a possibility. I have difficulty getting my head around a gun of that quality--let alone a pair of guns, assuming #2 matches this one perfectly--with no SN, no maker's name, and the anomaly of the odd barrels.

I've seen a number of non-VC guns built on Helice-system actions, marked with some version of "Helice" and no maker's name. But they've all carried St. Etienne proof, and I haven't seen any of the quality of this one. Might some maker in Belgium have purchased some VC actions? Perhaps. But I think I'd be more inclined to go with someone in Belgium fitting high quality replacement barrels to a VC action. That's about as good as I can do based on the evidence at hand.