http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_k.u.k._Hoflieferanten_1899 Some fine soul has discovered a/the k.u.k Hoflieferanten 1899 list for the Vienna court, scanned(original text looks to be to the far right) and entered it on the web. "k.u.k." is for kaiserlich und königlich standing for Imperial & Royal and Hof-lieferanten noting that an entity was a supplier/purveyor to a specific member of the court. 1st an entity or company had to have an established business relationship with the court and after a few years, and under close scrutiny, the title of top supplier could be attained. From what I can glean, the title was non-transferable and a partner, heir/assign or different owner would have to acquire a similar title. Taking Anton Mulacz, or Johann Erhart of Marburg for example, he is listed as a büchsenmacher so he supplied the gunroom of one of the members of the court. The title warranted a yearly stout fee and could be revoked at any time but it put the maker in the luxury goods realm. At the end of the Habsburg's reign there were some 506 top suppliers and around the turn of the 20th century there were at least 500 purveyors or more. Pre-1867 items may have a "k.-k." which stands for kaiserlich-königlich or "k.u.k." while most post 1867 items will have the the "k. u k." abbreviation, noting being from anywhere with the Austro-Hungarian empire, with the exception of items solely from the Austrian portion of the empire which will have the "k.k." stamp. A "m.k.", magyar kiralyi, would denote an origin from the Hungarian region. I'm sure there are other lists and I type all this to note that these lists may provide some insight into these Hof-Büchsenmachers, master gunsmiths sourced for sportings arms, that we're chasing. So those of you with k.u.k. examples feel free to post the name and/or pic. Hof-Büchsenmacher was just a marketing ploy or tool. Note that Springer is at the top of the list. The reason I stumbled upon this list is that there exits a Scherping example with Albert Staehle's name atop the rib and he was in Vienna in the mid 1860s and later he is listed as "k.k. Hof-Büchsenmacher Wien". In 1881 an advert gives Scherping as being a Hofbüchsenmacher in Hannover as well as Rasch of Brunswick as well as a Bruns of Brunswick but he was only listed as a gunmaker if I am reading it correctly.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
