doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lebeau-Courally

So, to come back to the Lebeau brothers. They seemed to enjoy some reputation in Liege, anyway, if they were "recommended", and could attract investors. Yet, their story seems to be filled with court action, bankrupcies and partners opting out of partnership. How would that impact their reputation in Liege? We know that for the Brits in early XIX century a bancruptcy was a stigma - even the great Joe Manton couldn't get on his feet again. Were Liege gunmakers of the late XIX century more bancruptcy tolerant?

Another question - how about the analysis of sporting/weaponry press? That usually doesn't say anything about how good a maker is, but is a good indication of how well-known. Were there any gun/hunting magazines in 1860-1890 Belgium?

Although my library is severely limited I don't see Lebeau shotguns touted anywhere in contemporary works.

I think this is due to the fact that as a hunting weapon market, Belgium was negligible.
The vast majority of the stuff was exported to France, US and Germany.
At least that's what the forensics say.
In that context, there would be almost no point in publishing anything locally, as there would be no customers to convince and therefore no advertisement money.

Of course, whatever was in Belgium in 1940 went to Germany anyways, and then on to the US in 1945, so maybe I am wrong, but if you look at the country size, density, etc., I still think I am about right.
Best regards,
WC-

Generating sales for the trade is NOT the only function of outdoor press - no matter how much reading contemporary American magazines may convince you to the contrary Originally, hunting mags made most of their money out of subscribers, in return for the service of providing them with accurate and valuable information on the issues of interest to them - including "which gun is a better buy". Lots of authors would also mention the names of the guns in their stories - NOT as product placement, but just to express their liking or disappointment.

Wild cattle, you are only partially correct the majority of the produced guns whent for export, neverthless many high grade guns stayed in privat collections. You forgot to mention that Americans destroyed many guns volontary and that many guns got to the Russians.
Cheers, Marc.

Well, that's all they had back then was magazines and newspapers to promote and to inform people of what was taking place in the shooting sports.

So what we have here is the Lebeau brothers building a gun that was not recognized or used by anyone until Ferdinand Courally invested in the firm and promoted the Lebeau gun to a point where royalty such as the Czar of Russia took notice and started buying them. Which, of course, promoted the Lebeau Courally gun into 'Best' status throughout the world. Am I correct?

That is the whole truth.
Cheers, Marc.

Colleagues, I hope this is the end of discussion
https://shotguncollector.com/2016/03/28/lebeau-courally-between-truth-and-fiction/

The "product placement" concept doesn't exactly ring true when we look at the American outdoor press going back to the last couple decades of the 20th century, and continuing until today. Much of the renaissance in American interest in vintage doubles centered on classic American side by sides--most of which hadn't been made since before World War II, or else the companies in question stopped making side by sides shortly after the war. You don't have anyone paying you to promote Parkers when they haven't been made for 40 years. Yet if you look at the vintage doublegun market in the United States today, prices for Parkers, Foxes, LC Smiths, Ithacas, Lefevers, and Winchester Model 21's--especially in gauges other than 12--remain very strong. Meanwhile, I can't think of a single side by side, either made in this country or imported since the mid to late 1980's, that has enjoyed the success of a copy of one of those classic doubles: the Parker Reproduction.

Meanwhile, we've had books written about all of the above American classics. And reproductions of just about all of them (albeit none that sold nearly as well as the Japanese-made Parkers). And in the outdoor press we continue to see stories from writers who are still shooting a vintage Parker, Fox, Ithaca, etc. Yes, we do see reviews of this or that new double from Italy or Turkey, or less frequently these days, Spain. But individually, none of those guns seem to catch on as well as did the Japanese-made and Ithaca-imported SKB of the 60's and 70's, or Browning's Japanese BSS of the 70's and 80's. All of which were modestly priced guns, generally regarded as being solid guns at their original prices.

And having written more than a few gun reviews of new guns (albeit probably more articles about ones that were last new more than half a century ago), I'd have to add that I never saw as much as a nickel for the "product placement" I gave them. As writers, we are often able to buy new guns at attractive prices. But we don't get them for free, nor do we get anything from the maker other than hope for a mostly positive review and some good publicity.