doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Czech (Prague) gunmaker named Lavena?

Now this is a potential aquisition for me.

I don't have photos and I understand how valuable they are in research. They may come at a later date.

The only name on the gun besides Prague is the word Lavena.

It looks like a very well made gun, with nice but restrained engraving. It's a sidelock with side clips, cocking indicator, bushed firing pins, nice wood etc. It's nitro proofed.

For now, I'm just trying to figure out if Lavena is the gunmaker. I've searched the internet and so far have come up dry.

Lavena was co-operative of fine gunmakers.

"Lovena Praha" (Prag, Prague) will give you a number of informative google hits.
Also Raimey wrote obout Lovena here in late May as well as in August.
- Jani

Some old/some possibly new info on Lověna. I would expect to see some Belgian proofmarks.
Lověna was some combination of letter from the original founder's names and I think there were originally 3 folks.

Janecek of Praha was somehow involved
Take this with a couple grains of salt as info is somewhat difficult to find. But circa 1930 F. Janccek had facilities in Reichenberg and Praha and was somehow connected to Lovena. I can’t say if F. Janccek/Janecek?Jancek’s Lovena was one in the same but there are some catalogues that can be found for sale.

At some point Lovena had a warehouse in Ostrava and became a People’s Cooperative for Gun making/Rifle making. From what little I know of it the monetary assets of the makers were commandeered by the State but for a statue amount of time the State may have allowed the original makers, or their heirs and assigns, to maintain their shop and continue production. After WWII Gustav Bittner, Wenzel(Wenzl) Morgenstern and the boys were nationalized, sort of like our Heathcare is headed, and I think one of the Morgenstern folk was in a supervisiory position under Zbrojovka CZ Strakonice(that is if I have the correct name). Then the whole lot was folded under Lověna Prague and then by the mid 1950s, weapons production ceased. So in the in the 1950s or 1960s it appears to have been nationalized and headed in the direction of a Communist cooperative.

In the 1960s and 1970s, orders for new cutlery and guns were taken at the various satellite offices, possibly in other cities beside Prague such as Plzen, and processed at the Lovena facility at the supervision of a master of sorts. Small tasks such as sharpening and repair were performed at the satellite shops. A copy of the Czechoslovak Cooperator from the 1960s or 1970s possibly would shed some light on the subject.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

A Lovena example at Gulf Coast Guns that I have had the pleasure of inspecting:

http://www.gulfcoastguns.com/1007.htm

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Thank you so much for your replies. Your information has helped me a great deal as I consider the gun. If I end up buying the gun and anyone is interested, I'll post some photos.

James

James:

If the example is Austrian/Bohemain/German, I'm always interested so kindly pleasure us with some pics. If it is a sidelock it may be similar to a Bittner, F. Faukner, Holecek(student of Churchill??), H. Roedl(transition type lock) or Antonin Machac, who was a firearms merchant for F. Dumoulin & Cie and married Frantisek Faukner's sister on February 6th, 1877, etc. and similarly sourced from the master craftsmen in Belgium. It could be composed from components from W. Morgenstern also.

I failed to mention that Adolf Machac of Brno was head of the conglomerate of Bittner/Fukert/Morgenstern, etc. post WWII.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I have Lovena catalog and can't say all their guns made in Belgium, they ordered some gun parts in white from different sources. I've been told it was top gunmakers co-operative in Prague at the time.

Geno:

Would you scan it and email me a copy?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

No problem, Raimey, I'll send it to you. But I found 4 pages from catalog only (best SLE guns), I was sure I got the whole catalog. Maybe I found the rest pages later in 2 huge boxes. Some of my catalogs in poor conditions, but 99% of them is original catalogs

Pages sent.