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All, I have found a gun I may be interested in. It is an L. Christophe SXS Sidelock. I know these were Belgium made guns but I am unable to find a lot of information about them. Was this a gun maker or a trade name with guns built by others? If anyone can point me in the direction of other info that would be great. Thanks

Christophe was an excellent maker of guns, though as I understand it there was always an effective guild system in place in Belgium and it was used by many, if not most, to some extent or another. Detailed information is seemingly quite hard to come by, but the few Christophe examples I've seen were all top end in their execution.

Have a friend who had an exquisite 30" bbl'd .410 Christophe for years that he had bought out of a wooden barrel full of beaters, literally. It had a broken/missing buttstock at the time & a lot of years worth of 'shop grunge' fortunately protecting the metal, he'd said. He spent a couple of thousand having it restocked to his liking and restored on that side of the pond and used it to his great satisfaction & enjoyment on dove & starlings mostly while he was still shooting. Another individual is enjoying it today. That particular gun weighed under 5 pounds and was F/F.

I shot w/him in one year's Pan American skeet shoot [somewhere back in 70's] when we couldn't shoot that day at all, unless we wanted to enter the tournament & shoot the .410 event. So we did, just the two of us on the squad and the NSSA ref. pulling. He'd self declared in 'AA' class [the highest class, at that time], dropped the first bird out and 'ink spotted' the next 99 & won the event outright! He was a fine shot; didn't much shoot skeet though;-) I'm pretty sure it has been the only time in recent history anyone won a major skeet tournament event with a hammer gun. More than you asked, but too fun not to tell. I shot a full choked solid rib model 42 that day & didn't do as well. Hahaha

I'll contact him for you next week & see what he may offer in the way of insight on Christophe, if you like. I won't be able to do anything before then unfortunately.


kind regards, tw

Louis Christophe was a retailer of weapons in all kinds for hunting, the shooting of stand and the colonies (a firm similar to Orvis). The address of the firm was Passage Lemonnier, 11, Liege Belgium. They did not make guns but had guns made by others under their name. Their guns ranged from field grades to best guns. Jules Bury built guns for them. I am sure others did as well, but the guns I have seen from them (three SxS and three Dbl Rifles) all were Jules Bury made.

Check the receiver for JB under a crown as the mark of Jules Bury

Their finest guns could compete with the best of their day. I have two SLE Christophes engraved by Liege engraver Jules Eug�ne Schoffeniels. He often signed his work on the bottom of the receiver "Schoffeniels"

Most of the high end Christophe guns appear to be proofed in the 1920's I do not believe the firm reopened after WWII. A reprint of their 1922 catalog is available from Cornel Publications.

They do not have the name recognition some Belgium firms have and Belgium guns do not pull the prices of British guns so be careful not to overpay

tw, old colonel,
Thanks for the info thus far. OC, you are correct, the is a JB under a crown right above the serial number on the water table. I will try to get some pics of the gun and post them including the proof marks. The gun is exquisitely engraved with beautiful work covering the entire receiver, breech balls and trigger guard. The barrels measure appx. 26 3/4. Not sure what that is in metric conversion. The chokes appear to be full and IC (it may have been opened on the left barrel). Now for the bad, It has what I think is a Simmons rib added, nicely done, but it is there none the less. Straight grip stock but appears to have been redone. The for end is a beavertail that I feel is a replacement and has a crack on the side. More good stuff - front articulated trigger and ejectors. French grayed metal work. Side lock with 7 pins/screws.

PM Sent

Early on Louis Christophe was an inventor of mechanical devices for the manufacture of firearms. He was around in Liege from at least 1863. He held 11 patents by 1885. Later the firm became more of a retail operation. Eventually the firm was located in Brussels. Most of the guns from the Brussels store had very nice engraving.

Pete

Here are some pics of the gun discussed above. Any help with the proof marks would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, not the best light.

A few more;

The gun was nitro proofed in 1929. It is a 12 gauge with 2 3/4" chambers. The barrels weighed 1.36 kgs or 2.99 lbs at time of proof. I can not make out the choke marks on the barrels.
http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html

Pete

PeteM,
The choke marks on the barrels are 18.4 on both. When I put my bore guage in the barrels the constriction was .004 (IC) for the right barrel and .025 (IM) for the left barrel. I believe the chokes may have been opened but I am not sure. Thanks for the link and your help!