gjw
Yes, the cat is out of the bag on Francottes.
I am no expert,but am a fan & have had several.
I believe the nicest Guns available over here were imported by VL&D (Von Lenge? & Detmold) , & so marked on the side of bbls,,from around 1920--30 ish.The later A&F ones don't seem as nicely finished to me
They had some plainish Boxlocks like The High Gun & Knockabout, then some rather nicely engraved Bl's like the #s 14 & 18.
Then there were some nice Sideplated BL's going up in prettyness from #s 20,25,30,& 45(eagle grade)
Then there were the SLE Guns,don't know what #s these were, but a nice Francotte SLE is a very beautiful Gun.
I particularly like the lovely carved Rush/Reed/Ribband fences found on many of them, not just the SLEs either,
I had a beaut' of an 18e, awsome to look at, but it had problems & I had to send it back to seller.
The Model #s above were just for the imported Guns..I don't think they used those #s on their home turf.
Hope this helps a bit
Cheers
Franc Otte
Last edited by Franc Otte; 05/19/11 08:27 PM.
