--- snip ---
If the name on the gun is a retailer is it possible like the British guns to find out who actually built that gun?
Usually. What I tell folks is when it comes to Spanish shotguns the name on the top of the barrels is advertising, and the manufacturing data is on the bottom of the barrels. Usual practice for a retailer selling guns made by someone else is to have the retailer's name on top of the barrels, but the true maker's mark on the barrel flats and water table.
I came across a good example of this back around 2011, when a Trust Eibarres with that deep relief game scene engraving shown above on the EGO and Arrieta came up for sale. Trust Eibarres was a retailer, and an examination of that gun's barrel flats and water table turned up the real maker: Pedro Arrizabalaga.
There are exceptions to that, and Astra (Unceta y Cia) is an example of such an exception. Astra produced box lock guns in-house, but bought side lock guns from other makers and sold those side locks under the Astra label. Unceta y Cia actually required those guns to be delivered without any reference to the true maker, and stamped them as if they had been made by Astra. So it's a rare day when we can attribute any Astra side lock to any specific maker.
