HofBüchsenmacher Berger of Köten in Saxony had a central/center fire design with very similar strikers. Wilhelm Collath had at least 8 weapons patents and his design was an “eccentric” lockup with a tipping-barrel breech and really no hinge. It has a disk in the forend that facilitates the lockup. I would say that Georg Teschner of Frankurt on the Oder or Wilhem Collath improved the 1856 design of Johann Nikolaus/Niklaus von Dreyse, which was based on the 1856 design(Feb. 22, 1856 – French #16042) of Bastin which was based on that of Casmir Lefaucheux of January 28th, 1833(French #5525). Now here’s where it gets a bit confusing as who did what and the terminology. George Teschner, and also Berger, were also in the cartridge design business. Titled top gunmaker Berger was also in the mix and it may very well be that the two, or 3, collaborated on design as well as cartridges. But Berger and Teschner referred to scattergun with firing pins, or central/center/center fire longarms as Lancaster, and I think that to evolve from the scattergun cartridge being call Lancaster. At any rate Berger & Teschner’s design allowed the interchangeability of needfire and central fire; hence, a conversion. And for some reason Teschner, in order to use the Berger cartridges, converted some of his central fire longarms back to needlefire in order to use the Berger cartridges. So for some finite period, central fire, needlefire and pinfire longarms were produced simultaneously. It seems that on most of the Dreyse/Berger/Teschner/Collath examples the lever moves to the left in order to breech the weapon while the Lefaucheux style moves to the right. So in changing/updating my opinion for today, I’d say you have a double sourced from Teschner/Collath who also heavily sourced Suhl & Zella-Mehlis, based on the Berger design, which was based on Dreyse’s design. I would also say that it may only accept Teschner type cartridges.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
