After re-reading Geno/Bill Wise's article, I see that there is a Gustav Bittner, Weipert, Bohemia, frame connection. In the article it notes frames were from Gustav Bittner's Austrian factory, a group effort that made components for the Mannlicher for the Austro-Hungarian armed forces. So easily, there could have been a Russian-Bohemina-German connection. And the "E(backwards)P" stamp must have been Bernard's due to the fact that Paris the proof facility wasn't online in the 1880s. And it is the name "Kilby" in gothic that is adjacent to the "Trade Mark" stamp(Thanks Geno for the effort).
rse
With an amended hypothesis I now submit that Jan(John) Nowotny(Newman) of Prague, who founded his company in 1865 in his mid 20s and lived until 1893, when his son continued the business, was also in the triangle. On page 77 of a Nowotny catalogue which looks to be in Russian is the "J. Nowotneho hammerlesska Model "Second to None" / Cis. 78" which has an English quote of "Kilby's extra resisting fine steel". Vejprty/Weipert/Vyprty(exit gate from Bohemia to Saxony) was very similar to Suhl and was a source for complete longarms, longarms in the white or components. Wenzel Morgenstern's catalogue lists locks, components and much more. Wenzel Morgenstern & Son's also may have made longarms for F. Faukner of Prague. Wenzel Morgenstern was also employed at the Weipert proofhouse in the early 1900s. Bittner, Fukert, Morgenstern, Schmidl and Schwab formed a comglomerate subject to Steyr/Osterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft in Weipert in the last 1880s to fab the Mannlicher rifle for the Austro-Hungarian Army. This allowed the purchase of higher end machinery that in turn advanced their sporting longarm division. So Matsak could have sourced frames and tubes from Bittner/Morgenstern. Also Nowotny's might have sourced "in the white" longarms from Weipert but I'd like to see some Nowotny examples with Weipert marks to confirm that.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
