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What do you mean by that Jani?

Needmore,

Jani is referring to the seven point crown of a Baron (Freiherr) in gold inlay on the top of the receiver.

Very nice drilling!

Mark

Ok. Here's the big secret behind this gun. The story is that this gun was commissioned by Theodore Roosevelt for his sister Anna Roosevelt thus the initials A R in the monogram. However, it's just a story until there is actual provenance to back it up. So we're very interested in dating and tracking down a maker or engraver or something

Since Anna Roosevelt Cowles (1855-1931) was not a baronesse I'm afraid I can't see how this nice drilling could be made for her.

With kind regards,
Jani

I agree with Jani. This,of course, doesn't mean she never owned it, but it wasn't built for her.
Mike

As it's post 1912 that would mean Anna was at least 57 if she received it very, very shortly after its manufacture, if that was precisely 1912 and not later. If we give the Baron a reasonable 10 years of ownership that would put it at the earliest at 1922, again providing the manufacture date was precisely 1912. At that time Ms. Roosevelt would have been 67. Possible? Sure. Probable?.....form your own opinion.

I'm afraid I must concede with all of your expert opinions. It does seem to make the most sense that it probably wasn't associated with Roosevelt. I am curious to know more about the crown in the monogram. Was that only reserved for royalty or the barons?

Look wikipedia about german nobility:

German Nobility

The crown with seven jags is, as Jani said, a Freiherren Krone, but not only�. Some of the german ancient nobility families have also 7 jags and not 5 in their crown! So you have the choice between some hundreds of families and those beginning with a "R" may be numerous.

The more jags in the crown the "higher" is the nobel title (Graf, Herzog, F�rst etc.) with the Kaiser Krone on top which is "closed". (the jags)

Gunwolf

here is another example:

Here you can find german nobility families with "R":

Wikipedia-Adelsh�user N-Z

Of course you always have to look for neither "Uradel" or "alter Adel" or "Freiherr" or "Reichsfreiherr" or "Baron"��

May be it was owned by a "Rothschild" ;-)
Gunwolf

Here you may also find the many different shapes of crowns as they indicated rank of nobility in the various empires and realms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldic_crown
Or, in German:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangkrone
I too read the monogram on your drilling as "Freiherr = Baron A. von R."
Americans are usually ignorant on the meaning of the different shapes of crowns. To them most often any crown is a crown, certainly indicating former ownership by the Kaiser or, at least, a king. Two examples from questions dropped at my feet: There once was a lavishly engraved, carved and gold inlaid Tesching = blackpowder small bore / rook and rabbit rifle. As the tang is inlaid with a crown and a big W underneath, it was advertized as "Kaiser Wilhelm's favourite plinking rifle". As the crown was the type with just five tines, it never even came near the Kaiser, as the original owner was a simple, untitled "W. von �", the lowest rank of German gentry/nobility. Before 1918 successful industrialists, inventors, politicians, poets and so on were often promoted to nobility by having a "von" attached to their name, see f.i. Nicolaus von Dreyse, inventor of the Prussian needlegun.
Then there was a Haenel M1909 rifle, engraved with another crown and the letters J and F.

The owner hoped it once belonged to Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz-Joseph I. But Franz Joseph was already 79 years old in 1909 and abhorred bolt action hunting rifles. The crown is neither the imperial Austrian nor the royal Hungarian one. This crown is a "F�rstenhut" = princes crown and by the address of the retailer was in south-western Germany, I was able to identify the most likely original owner: F�rst = Prince Johannes Friedrich von Hohenlohe, 1863 - 1923.