Well, from memory, I will do my best. The significant Regis Darne patents were 1881 for the rotating breech model C, 1887 for the pivot breech model A (nice illustration above, by the way) 1894 for the first generation sliding breech designs, 1896 for a quick loading "Canardier" (punt gun) 1902 for flanged (monobloc) barrels, and 1908 (renewed in 1933) patents for the intercepting sear arrangement on V guns (although they aren't sears, and don't work exactly like intercepting sears, they do accomplish the same thing) and converging obturator discs. Those are the significant civilian patents, in 1916 (renewed in 1936) Regis Darne received patent for a synchronized aviation machine gun that spat out 1200 rounds per minute.
Regis Darne had been at design work in the firearms industry for many decades prior to 1909. He was very elderly when he passed away in 1939.
Somewhere in my collection of Darne trivia, is an English sales brochure on the Darne machine gun. It was intended for military consumption, and was, contrary to several reports, a good functioning unit, and quite light.
Francisque was Regis Darnes eldest son, and for the usual reasons, struck out on his own, circa 1909. If he was ever awarded a patent for anything, I've yet to see it in writing, and, sadly, he died in 1917. The company he founded, Francisque Darne, Fils Ainé, soldiered on until 1955, under several different owners. Quite a few French civilian gun manufacturers gave up the ghost circa 1955, by the way. Tough economic times were the cause.
When I was last in St. Etienne, I passed on a neat model A, which was a pre 1887 patent gun, based on the fact it had damascus barrels. I've seen a few 1894 patent Darne sliding breech guns that seem to be pre patent guns as well, based on the fact that they were barreled by others, and had no patent information on them. The first production Darnes were barreled by others, and it must have chapped senior Mr. Darne's ass badly, as most of the guns he built later go into great detail on the flats that they are patented and barreled by Darne. The 1909 catalog has 1881 and 1909 patent model C guns (the very first model C rotating breech models were hammer damascus guns, I've seen and photographed one example, but, never seen them in a catalog) 1907 patent model A (improved) 1894 patent model R guns, 1898 model P guns, and 1909 model R and V guns, and several different punt guns. Whew. Something for everyone.
By 1936, just the 1909 R and V models, along with two grades of Halifax (# 4 and 5) and a single grade of P, # 17, are listed.
Only one of the V guns gets triple proofed, the 22. V guns 19-21 are double proof guns. All R and P models are triple proofed, excepting Halifax, double proof on both grades.
Gold medals were won in Paris, in 1889 and 1900, St. Etienne in 1891. Exposition honors in Lyon, 1894, Bologne, 1927, Liege, 1905, Milan, 1906, Marseille and Berlin, 1907, London (!) 1908, Turin, 1911, Liege (again) in 1930, and Paris, 1931.
The list of pigeon shoots where folks using Darne guns won is too long to type, but, includes places like Monte Carlo, Vichy, Monoco, and some off the beaten path places as well, Moscow, Bogota, Palencia, Lisbon, etc.
Hope that answers a few questions. Don't ask any more for a while, OK?
Best,
Ted
