Argo,
Thanks, but, I consider myself only a student of the Darne. There is much to know, and much that cannot, from this juncture, be discovered.
In the early 20th century era, I don't believe Darne guns were serial numbered from a perspective of the number being useful for anyone outside of the production team/factory that built them. There wasn't a strict legal requirement that a sequential number be applied to finished guns in that era.
I believe the number was mostly useful for keeping production guns from having their pieces end up in guns they weren't fitted to. Although, I have demonstrated with my Halifax, that having a number on a part doesn't promise the numbers will all be the same, when everything is finished, for whatever reason that might be!
I'm sorry, but, I don't have an explaination and neat answer to your question. Truthfully, I don't believe anyone does. We don't know what the management of the factory was thinking or doing in 1910-1912. The French are great record keepers, but, twice they were occupied by Germans that forced their record keeping upon them. Did the factory records survive from that era? Hard to say, but, for what it is worth I spent a day in the larger public library in Lyon, and could discover almost nothing about the factory, the work, or the guns. Lots of stuff on Regis, who was a local hero of sorts.
Without a ledger of some sort, documenting what was going on, circa 1910-1912, we are pretty much in the same boat with the guys who pursue smaller American makers, Baker, Norwich, etc. I think it is important to only document what can actually be documented, so as to avoid "lore" which, is what existed when I first got into sliding breech guns about 30 years ago.
I'm sorry. When and if we can find some documentation, we will discover more. I am amazed at how much you have tracked down on Didier thus far.
Best,
Ted
