I think Tinker to be spot on and not to beat up on the great example of the Heym boys quailty, but I don't see any Nitro marks; therefore, it was proofed with black powder only. But the Heym boys are on par with any other craftsmen in Suhl or Zella-Mehlis. I'd say the rifled cartridge is an older black powder variant. But that goes pretty much hand in hand with the Austrian/Bohemian deep relief carving. I'm curious as to the LOP.
Heinrich Leue was born in 1837 and just to throw some numbers out there lets say the average beginning age for an apprentice is 13 years, between 12 & 14 years, and the length of the apprentice stint is 3 years. So he was 16 years old when he began his 7 year walkabout in order to become a master gunsmith. So adding another 7 years would yield him being 23 years old upon receiving his master gunmaker’s sheepskin. I don’t know why, but let’s round up to 24 years as the average age for a master gunsmith. So if Heinrich Barella as born in 1819 then he should have been a master gunsmith by 1843 and he founded his company in 1844. I don’t think he could have been born in 1822 and been a master gunsmith in 1844; therefore, I think his correct name to be Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Barella(Bardella).
But viewing the price list here,
http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20l/a%20leue%20et%20knoll%20gb.htm , one will note that Heinrich Leue and a salesman with the last name Timpe(1st name Biff?????) founded a business in 1860. So the 23 years fits well in Heinrich Leue’s case. Sources give some other happening in 1867 and I don’t know if the date is incorrect or the opened another outlet but Leue and Timpe hold patents in 1866 and 1870. By at least 1880, and I would say more than likely with the assistance of his relative/uncle Heinrich Barella, Heinrich Leue is found in the 1880 Mecklenberg top artisan list:
http://books.google.com/books?id=9EO9tHG...;q=&f=false . For now I don’t know the other 3 fellas:
Johann Schmidt(maybe a relative of E. Schmidt & Habermann??) - Schwerin
Friedrich Farnow - Schwerin
Franz Leithner – Isch.
Also note the engravers as they just might surface sometime:
Adolf Otto – Gustrow
Hermann Lange – Rostock
Georg Lenthe – Schwerin. Looks like Schwerin may have had some talented or connected craftsmen also.
In 1890 Max Knoll, not the co-inventor of the electron microscope, along with Ernst Ruska, but maybe his father??? -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Knoll , had the reins of the Leue & Knoll,
http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20l/a%20leue%20et%20knoll%20gb.htm (previous Littlegun ref.) , who had 10 Belgian patents from 1899 to 1914, when the company may have folded but I’m sure there was still an outlet in Berlin which may or may not have had a different name. And post WWI the stamp “WAFFENFABRIK LEUE & CO. BERLIN CHARLOTTENBURG” is found. Looks like Leue & Knoll had a German patent in 1891 and then in 1904 their strengthened lockup patent #174828 looks something like the Purdey nose? So after 1897 when Heinrich Leue departed this world either he didn’t have any heirs or assigns, or they worked with Knoll, who had the ingenuity while just the name Leue had the connections. I expect to see examples also sourced from Belgium due to the fact if you have patents in a country as well as a shop where there are talented craftsmen as well as a proofhouse; it’s just simple economics.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
