doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Henri Peiper

What sort of quality are guns made by this fellow
I am a little put off by it, belgian, BUT it looks to be as good as lower grade English stuff??
I realise that he probably made different grades of guns

Cheers

Peiper made almost all grades of shotguns from classic "just another Belgian clunker" farmers guns to some very nice doubles. I don't know whether anything approaching "Best" quality was ever sold under the Peiper name; perhaps others can comment on that.

If the price is right, I'd say you should focus on condition more than grade; at least in the US, Peipers don't bring much money in any grade, but in good shape they can be good shooters. Usual caveats about chamber length and barrel material/wall thickness apply, of course.

I have four, a sidelock Damascus barreled 12 gauge from about 1886, and three box locks of varying grades post 1905. I would agree Pieper most probably never made a "best" gun, but they made some nice ones. I'll post a couple pics when I get home tonight.

My three fluid steel barreled guns are all chopper lump and vary between a field grade and 100% coverage engraving.

Echoing Mike I would advise "buy the gun, not the maker". Pieper will never command much for brand value but I think I got some pretty nice guns for not very much money.

Pieper was an early pioneer of relative large scale and vertically integrated manufacturing as well as having a number of patents to his name, most importantly his system of joining the barrels, a system used to this day most notably by Beretta. He was also a founding partner of FN.

Yep, you are correct. All Belgian guns are junk. The entire output spanning over 400 years. Everyone knows if it was not made in London, it is not worth owning!

Seriously, you can't believe that nonsense....

American companies purchased 150,000 sets of damascus barrels from Belgium in 1906. Baker and others testified before congress, begging them to increase the tariff on Belgian guns so they could compete.

Canvasback nailed it. Pieper produced a lot of guns. Judge the gun. Some have survived better than others.













Pete

I only own one Pieper, a Bayard hammergun. It's not a best, but it's very nice and my everyday shooter.

Don't overlook them.

Steve, I like that hammer gun!

I'm home now and Pete has beat me to the punch by posting a photo of my better quality boxlock Pieper. Here are two more, same sliding lockup connected to the top lever as the better Pieper, both are 16 gauge, almost identical but for the engraving. In fact, they are just four serial numbers apart.

Pete, is that skeleton butt plate from the sidelock pictured above it? Don't remember seeing that picture before.

Looks like the little bit of engraving on it is thematically matched to the rest of the engraving on the gun.

I mention it because my better boxlock, which has very similar vine engraving, has a skeleton butt plate but the engraving on it has nothing to do with the rest of it. Although I do think it is original to the gun.

James

With the exception of the United States, the whole world holds Belgian guns in high esteem. Sophisticated Americans take advantage of the old canard about "Belgian clunkers" and acquire fine Liege smoothbores at modest prices.

J.K.B. von Falkenhorst

The captain of the first US Olympic trap team, Charlie Billings, chose a 26-inch mid grade 12ga Francotte for his grouse gun. He wasn't shy of cash. I have it now. Paid $800.

Thanks to Marc for finding this image. It actually shows a rather late Pieper patent.



Our sauer expert found the patent for this gun:

German patent No. 73747, which was filed in German patent office on April 21, 1893 by Henri Pieper, Liege, Belgium.





Pete