John,
I don’t know what or how much work William Donn was doing by the time he moved to Chicago. I believe that Thomas Kilby supplied the barreled action, in the white which was then sent to Germany (Prussia) where the action was refined and then engraved by someone who also did the Lindners that we know today as “Prussia Charles Dalys”. H.A. Linder was a maker in Suhl, Germany who made gun for SD&G under the name Charles Daly. I have no idea at this time who stocked it, did the carving or the final case hardening and blueing. We need to find a lot more hammerless guns with the Donn name on them before we can get a better idea of who did what.
I doubt if any of the small makers in Suhl had in-house engravers and I suspect that many were outsourced. In my experience with engravers I find that they tend to do the same pattern over and over. Now that more people are aware more stuff might come to light.
