Comments from Raimey:
“I believe the concern began with Ernest - Gabriel Roblin in the late 1840s or early 1850s and by 1876 Roblin had French patent 18204 for some addition to a sporting weapons platform, maybe on the Lefaucheux or A&D platform.
By 1889 it is Roblin et Fils and I'm sure when he passed the concern was reorganized under just Roblin a Paris.
Typically a maker worked for about 40 years and if he began in circa 1850 that would pair well with a transition to the son by circa 1889.
Any article from 1890/1891 notes that Roblin has been in business for over 30 years and at the time was one of the few Paris makers who actually had a workshop. They were cited for their innovations and quality.
I assume you know how hard I am on makers that are actually retailers, but Roblin seems to have been a maker, as time and time again E.G. Roblin held on to the fleeting thought that a Paris maker could pretty much make a sporting weapon in house while almost all other Paris makers were flocking to Liege for their wares.
Also he looks to have been a genius, with a French flare of course, on sporting weapons during the most interesting time of the evolution of the sporting weapon. Looking back in time we have 20-20 vision or better but at the time there was no guarantee that any specific maker was going to be the chosen one for the sporting weapon platform for the world and Roblin had it in mind that it might be he.
The attached is an 1863 patent; probably Ernest Gabriel Roblin's 1st and I would guess he had hung out his gun-making shingle some 5 - 8 years prior. I'd have to closely examine your Roblin but it may be the entity Roblin post 1900.
Charles Roblin was the son of Ernest Gabriel Roblin and was noted as continuing the tradition of quality that his father had started. Many times the patents of the hammerless scattergun platform of Ernest Gabriel Roblin is referred to as the Paris hammerless system.
From what I can tell all the proofs are Paris and post 1897. This strongly supports the stigma associated with Roblin; that he held out to the last in being a Paris maker.
Below is a translated contemporary text:
“Another gunsmith, a craftman with undisputed skills, Monsieur Roblin, he only makes shotguns. His weapons are distinguished by their austere style and manufacture. The appearance of simplicity does not exclude the elegance of form, it seems to even add. In details, as in the whole gun, we recognize that the artist is in love with his art. It is the art of self perfection (perfectionist). All of Monsieur Roblin’s guns have rebounding locks, that is to say, that the hammer, after having struck the striker recovers from battery to a safety catch from where it can’t move whatever we do with the gun. This curious invention, we believe, of English origin; Monsieur Roblin has refined and applied with a precision that can only be rented without reserve/reservation.”
