Interesting 1931 top tang lever of Josef Skácel, who's machinery was awarded to Josef Sekyra for a time at the end of WWII.
Below is something I posted on Josef Skácel here:
http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=291518 and I assume there would be some interest here.
More than likely your 1931 side plated boxlock Josef Skácel example passed thru the Prague proofhouse. Components could have been sourced from Praze or from Liege. I would guess Josef Skácel to have been born in his hometown of Kroměříže, in the late 19th century or very early 20th century, where the name Skácel looks to be comon today. Sources give that he had a sordid past and life in that he either had few scruples or lacked them all together as he is noted as something of a scoundrel or rapscallion. His modus operandi was to move into a location, acquire the machinery and very qualified technicians, treat them like dirt, possibly below the law or at its very edge of the law, garner all the Benjamins he could and then he was ran out of town on a rail after being tarred & feathered. He pulled this stunt 2 or 3 times before in 1930 he landed in Pardubice, a town South of Hradci Králové and about 75 miles East of Praze/Prague. To his credit, he was a whale of sporting weapon inventor and talent just oozed from his veins as evident in his examples. In 1931 he designed/developed/implemented the top tang push button opener as shown in a previous photo. With his hunger for money and treatment of his mechanics, I'm not sure just how much effort he applied but for the most part he was greatly disliked by his employees and he maintained his low moral status life style till May of 1945 at the end of WWII when he was sent into exile at some location(may have swept him under the rug??) due to his low morality coupled with the fact that he may have been a large Nazi sympathizer and/or collaborator. It appears that the Narodny Podnik or state enterprise commandeered his extensive equipment and for a time allowed Josef Sekyra, an apprentice of Jindřich Holeček of Hradci Králové, to utilize it before in 1949 forwarding it on to Rudolfu Rybovi. Like many of the Bohemian/Czech makers, much of the information on the very talented craftsmen has been lost but there are efforts underway to resurrect any & all info as discover permits. The partial datastring you noted is probably that of the Prague proof facility and it along with any other marks will point to a maker for the firearms merchant Josef Skácel. Yes there are makers/firearms merchants in the Czech Republic like Radek Dufek,
http://www.zbranedufek.cz/uvod.htm , as within the past say 20 years, after the revolution, there was a huge uptick in those wanting to be gunsmiths but the required effort and passage of time has dimmed that light.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
