I had earlier thought August Gottlieb Schüler/August Schüler-1850, who was more than likely a relative of Friedrich Wilhelm or Christian Friedrich Schüler who had a manufacturing and fabrication business in 1835. I may have mixed August & Friedrich, but I think I’ve seen it posted that August dates back to 1835 and that is incorrect. Oscar & August Schüler formed a business in 1880 which was merged with or absorbed by August Schüler circa 1900.
Let me attempt to clarify something regarding August Shüler. I’ve re-read info and GGCA Journals containing info on the firm August Shüler and in 1935 there was an advertisment noting that August Schüler had been in business for 100 years. Of course it is not possibly for the same August Schüler that we associate with German longarms to be that person and he took the reins of a company circa 1850 and the name could have been “August Schüler”(or renamed to) as he was the younger brother of Christian Friedrich Schüler who indeed did have a gunmaking business in 1835. Possibly their father or grandfather was named August Schüler and Christian Friedrich’s business was named “August Schüler” or either August Schüler took over the business and renamed it circa 1850.
Gunmakers who made their example to attain the rank of master, knew what it took to make each individual component of the example but probably only made a couple of components himself which were in his area of expertise. Then if he was a top rank maker or maker to a royal court, he might have made a longarm or some of the components. Then knowing what the end product would look like, he then formed either a temporary conglomerate, or perhaps semi-permanent one, of tube makers, frame source, lock makers, stock source, finisher and engraver. I think Ernst Steigleder, W. Forester, O. Geyger, H.A. Lindner, etc. are such examples. So, where would one source the components? Well, Suhl and Zella Saint Blasii, including Mehlis, had formed a protected craftsmen bubble by not having a government arsenal nearby, by converting to sporting arms for the most part and by embracing mechanization; therefore, the area was about the only choice. In Suhl components could be sourced from the lower rung all the way up to the most expensive due to the fact that a broad range of craftsmen were at a GC(general contractor’s)’s disposal. The GC could have been in Suhl or could have been afar. All of the aforementioned craftsmen at one time could have made a sporting piece for anyone in the world but it just was not efficient, practical or cost effective. So these craftsmen migrated from a maker, to a quality control person like Lindner, Aydt and others and possibly on to a firearms merchant having their name roll stamped on the top rib. With all that said is it possible to equate a Lindner longarm grade and initials, i.e., did Lindner source specific craftsmen for specific grades or could all sources produce any grade?
Oh and what happened to Daly's network? Well one of the high cost of WWI was the lost of mastercraftsmen and potential mastercraftsmen, as was the case with H.A. Lindner, who was left with no heirs or assigns. Charles Daly expired in 1899 and the structured weave of the network of craftsmen, general contractor and market fell apart, with WWI also disrupting the conduit of supply and demand. Then the 3rd Reich was able to burst Suhl's protective craftsmen bubble by discontinuing target competitions with true sporting arms and forcing the craftsmen to contribute mainly to the up and coming war effort.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
