welcome to the site....it is my go to place for french gun information especially.
many of the french makers used some sort of in-house symbol that denoted the relative quality of their guns....usually festooned on the barrel flats. darne used a round "pointcoin" (sp?)....charlin used both a bird (swallow?) and in some cases a hare (rabbit)....and manufrance used a frond (or laurel). the more of these stamps there are indicates the relative quality of the gun....as judged by the maker. high grade darne's in particular will have quite a number of their quality stamps.
from memory, manufrance used as many as 7 or 8 laurel stamps....but 5 does indicate a fairly high level of quality...don't think i've ever seen more than that outside some really impressive high art guns. what grade is your ideal? should be marked on the bottom of the action body....as per information found here, serial numbers for 1925 production are 51,088 to 53,896....and the grades that were catalogued that year were 1 - 2 - 2S - 3 - 3S - 4 - 4S - 5 - 5S - 6 - 6S - 7E - 8E - 9EE - 9
please post photos of your ideal....good clear shots of the proofs on barrels and action flats will be useful in answering your questions....and, i'm sure that several of the crew will be along shortly....james, ted, gene and others
best regards,
tom
