doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Check it out: a C. Paubel, Suhl, Prussia, 10g...

I took a look closely at the barrel rib engraving. The exact spelling is:

C.PAUBEL SUHL PORUSSIA FINE' DAMASCUS STEEL BAREEL

Possibly the spelling of Barrel or accent on Fine might be a clue?

I'm confident that Daly coined the "Fine Damascus Steel" terms. With that text, could be possible that C. Paubel thought that Porussia needed to be paired with the "Fine Damascus Steel" when sent to a client in the U.S. of A. 1811 is the earliest publication where I've found Porussia to be contained. The following text is from Edinburgh Encyclopedia Vol. 16 of 1832:

"PRUSSIA, formerly a duchy, but now a powerful and extensive kingdom in Europe, is thought by some to have derived its name from its vicinity to the vast country of Russia. The Sclavonic word po signifying near or adjacent, the district which Prussia originally comprehended was in reference to Russia, as is supposed, denominated Po Russia, a term afterwards softened into Prussia. Nor is this derivation of names entirely fanciful or unprecedented. The river Elbe in the Sclavonic speech, was termed Labe; and hence, on the principle referred to above, the tribes which inhabited its banks were called Po-Labae, or Polabae. The word Prussia, however, whatever probability there may be in the foregoing etymology, has been traced by others to a different source, and has been supposed to be obtained from the Prusi or Pruzi, a Sclavonic people, whom ancient chroniclers mention as inhabiting a portion of the country which we arc now considering. In which of these conjectures the greater confidence may be placed, it is now too late to determine; but it may not be uninteresting to state, that the former, namely the derivation of the word from Po and Russia has obtained the sanction of a late illustrious king of Prussia, (Frederick the Great,) in his Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg."


Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

General consensus is that it was made for export(Exporte nach Ru�land, England, U.S.A) & if the Slavic variant term Porussia is only found in print in the English language, then it was originally destined for the U.S. of A.??? Need to chase down the bounds of the term Porussia for the mid to late 19th century.


Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I did stumble upon a Latin reference from the early 1700s that mentions Porussia:

De Terris Iuris Saxonici


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

I hope at some point we will locate another C. Paubel shotgun to compare. I would appreciate the thoughts on quality as compared to other manufactures from Suhl during this same period. I hope to get more information from the seller next week. It intrigues me how a gun stays in such fine condition for 130 years.

I think it to be on par with a hammergun offering from Suhl or around the globe at the time. For sure not a Lindner Daly, but it very well may be similar to those of Joseph Jakob of Philadelphia. If I recall correctly he peddled some big bore hammerguns.


Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse