Most insightful info indeed but I think your opinion to be anything but humble. Anyway, I didn't say the image I posted was without reservation that of the subject sporting weapon as it was the only somewhat similar image of a similar platform I had on hand. I can stomach much of your supposition but I think the tubes may have been sourced from the Austro-Hungarian empire. About this time makers were trying to settle on a central-fire hammerless design making it more or less a transitional stage. It is possible that makers were scrubbing one off at a time, but mechanization soon would have the upper hand. If I have the location of the town of Schmiedeberg being in proximity of the Czech(Prag) & Polish(Warsaw) border, I contend that on this walkabout that A. Kirchhof either developed sourcing lines or carried with him innovations in technology from his walkabout, making it a transfer of technology. A wild guess that his walkabout just may have taken him thru Prag & Warszawa, where there was a most interesting assembling of craftsmen for such locations as Herzberg, Prag & Spandau. Take the extensive Collette family of mechanics for example in Warszawa. Some were either born or passed thru the aforementioned cities of Herzberg, Prag & Spandau. With the merging of technology in Prag & Warszawa/Varsovie/Varsowie, it is possible that A.Kirchhof tapped into that circle of makers. For the most part designers just do not seem to put their designs to production, but they source from a talented pool of most capable mechanics who can. Moreover, I do not think that A. Kirchhof designed the ensemble, but at the very least sourced the components. During this early period it is possible that he could have been designer & manufacture but the probability is very low.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
