Same here on the location of the serial numbers, or last 3 digits. The date seems a bit early for Daly but then again if it was purchased in the white, or from components, it would have taken some time to travel. And it was in 1873 that Sauer has it's sporting weapons origins. I think it was in the early 1870s that Charles Daly went to the Brits but they didn't gee-haw as the Brits didn't want to hear what Daly wanted them to make and Daly didn't like what the Brits wanted to sell. So it is entirely possibly that he decided to acquire the components and travel to Suhl to have the sporting longarms finished to his desires/specifications. In hindsight, he knew exactly what he was doing. It will just take time to piece together what that was. I'm curious how many Daly examples are in the 15k range and if he had a contract with a Birmingham firm for tubes with his name atop.
Fast forward to 1907 and Schoverling, Daly & Gales look to have British patent #22946 for a single selective trigger with W. Fairweather as their agent. I couldn't conjure the patent so I was wondering if anyone else had seen it or if there were any Daly's with the single selective trigger?
And another 1903 tid-bit of info. I think it was in 1902 that John Browning went to Belgium to get FN to build the Auto5. By Fall of 1903 S,D&D had ordered 10k copies and sold them by Fall of 1904. I'd say that's a pretty stout Charles Daly-FN connection/relationship.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
