Sources give that Georg Ludwig Rasch was born in Braunschweig in 1792 and drew his last breath in this world as a gunmaker sometime in 1867. Using the age of 24 years as the approximate age for completing the gunmaker’s walkabout and paying for his(her?) master gunsmith sheepskin, Georg Ludwig Rasch would have been a master gunsmith in 1816 and I guess him to have been a supplier to a duke’s court about the time percussion firearms entered on the scene. Which duke’s court, I can’t say for now. I’ve seen info that indicated Georg Ludwig Rasch was also an engraver. But the majority of the appointments as suppliers to the royal courts also began about percussion era and for now I think very few hofbuchmachers lived into the 20th century. Heinrich Leue could be one of the very last. But I’ve seen Rasch pinfire examples on the Lefaucheux action and I expect he made percussion doubles sourcing tubes and guns “in the white” from Birmingham and a few examples are noted as having Westley Richard tubes? Probably just after his death G.L. Rasch sourced doubles from the craftsmen in Belgium and Suhl as I’ve seen Sauer marks on G.L. Rasch retailed hammer doubles. In the late 1800s there is an Otto Rasch listed as a gunmaker having a repair facility. I can’t say if this is how G.L. Rasch sourced his components or longarms or even if G.L. Rasch and Otto Rasch were related. But getting back to the longarm at hand, as Steven mentioned it has the Strassburg Verschluss, Kersten Verschluss or vertical bolting system. I think it to be somewhat of a faux pas to refer to it as a “Double Greener”. German gunmaker catalogues from 1904 note the Kersten Verschluss as being new and speculation is that the system was perfected between 1900 and 1904. And if the double rifle is bored for the 9.3X74R, it made it debút circa 1902. So the date can be narrowed to 1903/1904-1912. Now I’m curious if the scope, mount and bases were a later addition. A. Jackenroll is for Adolf/Adolph Jackenroll of Adolph Jackenroll Optische Anstalt, Gmbh., Schlesische Strausse 29/30, Berlin and I guess them to have begun making scopes and mounts near the beginning of WWI. An earlier date is possibly but war usually drives weapons technology and in 1914 the German had a sniper program and were dealing the British misery until the British counted with a sniper program. By 1916 Adolf Jackenroll and Carl Zeiss were sourced for scopes and scope mounts. The R.L. Rasch has the blocky military type bells. Circa WWII, Adolf Jackenroll was sourced for mounts and scopes for M41 rifles to be sold to the Swedes. The Fins also attempted to source Adolf Jackenroll for scopes and the like with an order of 2k or so but only received about 500 as the Germans decided they needed them worse than the Fins or Swedes, who sourced Svenska Akkumulatoraktiebolaget Jungner in 1942 for a Ajack replacement. Later in 1955 the M41/M41Bs were fitted with renovated Ajacks with coated lenses or new Ajack scopes(?) and about this time or shortly thereafter(1961??), I think Adolf Jackenroll to have folded. If the scope and mounts are original, (the heirs and assigns of G.L. Rasch could have sourced Adolph Jackenroll and installed the mounts), then the G.L. Rasch with the horn triggerbow would date to right up to 1912.
Oswald Nercke of Lange Brücke 51, Erfurt was a firearms merchant or retailer. Pics of the underside of the tubes near the barrel flats might provide some insight. The right side mounts on the drilling are very interesting.
I did find an 1874 German text that noted G.L. Rasch was combined with what looks to be L. Bruns, formerly H. Topsser? -
http://books.google.com/books?id=k9BMAAA...;q=&f=false Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
