Originally Posted By: ellenbr
WC- I understand, but he made an absolute statement that V-C did not have / never sourced the mechanics in Liege. It is in Gold, better than black & white, so my advice is to have an open mind and get the whole story. A catalogue for a concern is just chest thumping and the concern does not want you to know where or what they've sourced. This has been my theme the whole length. Am I wrong? You can set your Richter scale to the sensitivity that you desire.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse


Where did you find such a statement, Raimey? I was responding to YOUR statement that V-C was not a gunmaker. Matter of fact, if you read back through this rather long thread, you will find that I was the one who brought forth a statement from V-C, in their 1999 catalog, that the only sxs they were selling at that time were "made for them" in the European union. So if they had an operation in Belgium in the late 20's . . . sure, entirely possible. Wouldn't have been the first time, would it? But that does not mean that they were not also making shotguns in St. Etienne at the same time. And since the vast majority of V-C shotguns, both new and old, are marked V-C St. Etienne and carry St. Etienne proofs, you're going way out on a very thin limb with a claim that all their guns were made in Belgium and not St. Etienne. Or even all their barrels were made in Belgium (when they were clearly made from French steel, and so marked).

Nor does any of it mean that Cordy "absorbed" V-C. Entirely possible--1929 being an interesting date, don't you agree?--that as a result of the Great Depression, assuming V-C had its own gunmaking operation in Liege (rather than having someone else make guns for them and marking them V-C--which is what they were doing with sxs in the late 1990's) that V-C might have sold their Belgian operation to Cordy and "retrenched" to the home factory in St. Etienne. All sorts of possibilities here other than everything V-C coming from Belgium, or Cordy "absorbing" the entire V-C operation--which, interestingly enough, appears to have re-emerged in St. Etienne, just a few years later. Strange things do happen, but the Cordy "absorption" of V-C in its entirety does not seem to fit the available evidence.

Last edited by L. Brown; 06/03/13 09:16 AM.