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Firearms of the Islamic World: In the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait" By Robert Elgood
The Hungarian gunmaker Caspar Hartmann worked for King Gyorgy Rakoczi I in about 1634, but also made guns 'of Damascus steel, a costly and strong product' for the Hapsburg Emperor Ferdinand III. The great gun-making centre for the Austro-Hungarian empire was Ferlach in Carinthia. The Ferlacher Genossenschaft was founded in 1577 and had a virtual monopoly on the trade until 1815.
This is prior to the siege of Vienna. So Hartmann is not making copies of captured arms. Elgood is unclear as to whether or not damascus barrels were being produced in Ferlach. Hartmann is nearly 65 years before Liege was producing damascus. Both Liege and Ferlach lost their lead in the manufacturing of firearms about the same and for the same reason, namely the Napoleonic wars. After the formation of Belgium and Independence was declared, Liege once again resumed it's old production volumes.
Pete
