Recently a thread at the Darne USA forum has turned up a couple of FN sidelocks...these guns are visually no different from any number of Belgian sidelocks...the thing that sets these guns apart from anyother Belgian sidelock is the material selection and heat treating techniques that FN utilized in the manufacture of these guns. They may be the epitome of Belgian metallurgical science (up to that point in history).
In my opinion, even though all I can afford is Belgian doubles, English craftsmen produced most of the best guns that could be achieved given the techniques and materials of any point in time.
There was one exception though...The Germans have always been keenly aware of the Brit's lead in the field of sporting arm production, and pushed the quality of their sporting guns in order to attain the levels of workmanship that had become commonplace in England. At some time between the wars, the Germans, in their quest to out do the Brit's, utilized their massive lead in metallurgy. The culmination of British technology and workmanship was married to the top German alloy production, and resulted in the very best the German's had to offer. The company that produced these guns that were so very important to the vanity of the German sportsmen, was Greifelt.
Because of the collective desire of the German sportsmen that resulted in the manufacture of the top end Greifelt sidelocks...I too have subscribed to this wedding of the very best metallurgy to the very best design (English sidelock) and workmanship that could be attained up to that point.
My lifelong desire is to acquire a pre-war (actually between the wars) top end Greifelt sidelock...
