Hi all, as many of you have said, O'Connor did have two Eusebio Arizaga's. This maker at the time was a smaller firm that made custom (bespoke) and semi-custom guns. They were of very good quality and very well thought of in Spain. The other Arizaga's, like the other Sarasqueta's ran the gambit from very good quality to fair quality. A lot of these guns were imported here and were price point guns. You got what you paid for. Like many of you know, most of these guns "looked" very good on the outside, but the innards were a whole new ball game. Parts not hardened, crude casting and lots of file marks. These guns as you know are the ones that gave Spanish guns such a black eye and are just now starting to get out from under this cloud.
Gasper, as a rule was known as a low end maker. That's not to say did did not make some better guns. They did, but most of these were for the european market. It seems that the europeans didn't care for cheap (quality) guns. That's were we came in. Folks here wanted great guns, but didn't want to pay for them. So importers ordered cheap guns and that's just what they got. The Spanish makers at that time, really didn't care to much about their reps (with some exceptions of course). To them a buck was a buck. Money makes the world go round.
Both Gasper and Eusebio joined DIARM and when DIARM went belly up, so did they.
All the best!
Greg
