doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Proofmarks and country manufactured.w/pics

You forgot the Paris, and other early proof house marks, Dr. Drew:

https://www.shotguns.se/html/france.html

Best,
Ted

Which crowned palm is it Oskar?

Sorry I was typing while you were posting the second chart. It is the one near the middle with the crown, Palm leaves, crosses an st Entienne stamped along side.

Ignore what I wrote below sort of.


Ok, now I'm getting confused again (not hard to do). On the chart Drew posted the proof mark matches the one in line 22 for St. Entienne but that says it was used after 1897. Is it possible that this was built after 1897 or proofed after 1897? Again this proofmark is only on the barrel flats, not on the action. In fact the only mark on the action is the z4 that is on all the parts.

Thanks

Oskar

I believe we can say it was manufactured in France and proved some time after 1879, which would be late for a pinfire. Possibly 1st proof after some barrel work?

Thanks, that sounds good

French proofmarks date back to at least 1782. Baron Engelhardt published a series of articles on European proof houses for Gun Digest. Way back inthe Dark ages, someone sent me all of them. After Engelhardt's death, Lee Kennett updated them for Gun Digest back in the 1970's. GunDigest Treasury, edited by John Amber covering all of Engelhardt's original articles plus other GunDigest articles from1945-1960. I don't know of any current single source that covers all the European proof houses including the history of proof in those countries.

Here are the pictures.