In 1939 Abercrombie & Fitch placed ads in magazines such as Field & Stream announcing the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the importation of Francotte shotguns by Von Lengerke & Detmold and then by A&F after they merged with VL&D in 1929. So 1939 was the 50th Jubilee since VL&D first imported Francotte's in 1889. The ad's title was "Francotte Jubilee" and these vintage ads are often available on sites such as Ebay. The ads pictured a Francotte Grade No.20 and described the features of that gun. Unfortunately, the name "Jubilee" has come to be generally associated with all of the numbered A&F Francotte models - Grades No. 14, 20, 25, 30, and 45 that were available at that time. I say “unfortunately” because although the numbered models had been imported since the 1910 and had nothing special to do with a “Jubilee”, A&F actually did import a Francotte “Jubilee” model about the time of the ad’s appearance.
The “Jubilee” model was first received at A&F on July 31, 1939 but did not appear in the A&F catalog until 1941. There were a total of 71 Jubilee shotguns imported by A&F, the last one being received in inventory on January 31, 1940. You know what happened after that. They were available in 12, 16, 20, 28, and 410. The Jubilee model was a sideplated boxlock with relatively plain, blued sideplates. It was priced at the same price as the Grade No. 14, that is, $250. (Not all Francottes with blued sideplates are Jubilee’s. There were Francottes made for the European market with blued sideplates and these occasionally show up for sale on the web. They usually have the sling swivels that mark them as guns for the European market.)The A&F Jubilee’s all have serial numbers in the 886xx range. The last ‘new’ Jubilee was sold by A&F in 1942. This makes the Jubilee models one of the rarer of the Francotte shotguns imported to the U.S. by VL&D/A&F. I have never seen one – in fact, I have never seen a picture of one - until now. There is a 20 gauge Francotte Jubilee coming up for sale at the Amoskeag auction on March 29th and the spec’s are quite close to the original spec’s except for the thin pad.
http://www.amoskeag-auction.com/100/20.html Initially, it was mistakenly identified as a Grade 20 funeral model but I believe that that will be corrected. The Jubilee was sold to … ah, but that is for the buyer’s letter of provenance. If you are the lucky buyer of the Jubilee I hope that you will be in contact. At least we now know what a real Francotte Jubilee model looks like.
Bob Beach
Archivist
Griffin & Howe, Inc.
http://www.griffinhowe.com/research-main.cfm
