For our historical knowledge, I've translated more or less the above article on Maisonnial forwarded by Fab500. There are words in the article giving me trouble, in particular "entaillage" which appears to be "inletting" of a stock but not sure. Welcome clarification of the below words.. I'll add them to the French dictionary line
Anyway here it is:
MAISONNIAL
A great stephanois name
Maissonial closed its doors nearly 50 years ago. This gun maker, as popular with professionals as it was unknown to the general public, during four decades made hundreds of shotguns of very high quality. Some arms were almost anonymous because often they only had stamps with the initials “A.M.,” two letters which deserve, however, more attention and recognition.
Maisonnial is without doubt one of the mose beautiful stephanoises signatures, one of the most prolific and strangely one of the most unknown. In spite of work of very high quality, acclaimed by such gunmakers as Vouzelaud or Gastinne Renette, who for a long time entrusted a large part of their arms to the firm, Maissonnial remained in the shadows, at such a point that very few hunters knew the name and the true measure of the quality of the guns that they carried.
Even with hindsight it’s difficult to explain why a gunmaker stayed more or less anonynomous while others of the same or lesser quality created solid reputations. The relatively short lifespan of the maker is perhaps at the origin of this lack of notoriety. Maisonnial lasted only 45 years, of which 5 were war years, only a small half-century which gave birth however to a prolific production.
It all began in 1920 when Jean-Aime Maisonnial, called by all “Aime,” returned to Saint-Etienne, his city of birth. He had finished his “tour of France gunmakers.” Just over 24 years old, he had already acquired a solid knowledge in the course of his journey and he was hired off the street by a gun maker…with whom he stayed less than a year. Because in the evening, Aime worked for himself in his own workshop and made three long-guns which when sold allowed him the same year to go out on his own.
An inconspicucious Name
The young man, choosing for his companions from among the best “window gun makers” (“armuriers a la fenetre”) (those working from home) in the city, started the production of SxS longarms with extractors and ejectors with a lot of ambition and talent. Very quickly the quality of his shotguns, actions (platines) of the type Anson & Deeley, was recognized. Most were simply signed with the initials “A.M.” and often it was the name of the other maker or a dealer /retailer (revendeur) which were spelled out on the actions or the rib – “Fini par Gastinne Rennette” (finished by Gastinne Rennette) for example. There is another probable explanation for the relative anonymity of the mark. It would seem to be necessary to wait until 1945 and the arrival of Joannes-Aime, the son of Aime, for the guns to finally be signed “Maisonnial,” in all the letters, and thus to see the name acquire a little more visibility.
Joannes-Aime, himself, born in 1922, early on joined the family workshop. If his days were taken up by the courses of the school of gunmaking in Saint-Etienne, his evenings and vacations were spent at the side of his father. When the war came Joannes-Aime tried to escape “STO”
(Service du travail obligatoire - English: Compulsory Work Service; STO - was the forced enlistment and deportation of hundreds of thousands of French workers to Nazi Germany to work as forced labor for the German war effort during WWII).
But he was denounced and sent by force to Germany. During this time his father continued to make some arms with the same companions, but clandestinely. The arms produced where hidden, carefully buried. At the end of the war, when Joannes-Aime came back from Germany, he found an operational workshop; the friends of his father had not lost their touch and above all new guns were born to be completed and sold.
The manufacturer was able to respond immediately to the strong after-war demand. From 1944-1957 Jean-Aime and Joannes-Aime worked together in their workshop. The father transmited his knowledge and secrets of gun making to a son already very detail oriented, even more of a prefectionist that his father perhaps.
Although typically stephanois and made on the actions of Montcoudiol, Chataing or Faure, the Maisonnial guns possessed some unique characteristics. A pistol grip with an unusual shape, nearly a losange. Checkering most often “flat”, that is to say lopping off the top of each point, so delicate to make and which one could no longer do today. The engraving was just as painstaking with chiseled shells (coquilles ciselures) in a motif of olive leaves.
Aime Maisonnial died in 1957 at only the age of 63; “Till the last he stayed in his workshop, working all his life,” recounted Michel Maisonnial, his grandson.
The guns marketed by Maisonnial were considerable. First there were six A&D long guns, in a number of variations and finishes and “entaillages” (new word – Stocking inletting?). All were equipped with actions from Montcoudiol, Chataing or Faure, and were classic Stephaonis SxS very well made. To these were added two over/unders, one “entaillage” and the other with side plates (contre-platines). And certainly the supurb model number 8, the best of the best Maisonnial, a SxS side-lock gun, as rare as it is beautiful and good.
The “8” had all the that a lover of fine guns would want. A racy esthetic, very refined, with fine english bouquet engraving, sober and elegant., with "ciselures sur les coquille" (shell chiseling"?) and an elegant quenched case coloring (trempe jaspee a la boite) which had patina over time. Add some side plates of the type Holland & Holland which can be disassembled made by the best specialists in the genre, Belgian or stephanois, a “relime soignee avec filets"??, a third verrou cross-bolt, and wood which for the epoch was highly figured.
For a small number of examples made to special order supplemental characteristics further increased the rarity: Heurtier “Plume” barrels. Some tubes deprived of a ventilated rib but sporting an “eagle's head” (“tete d’aigle’), such as one applied a triangle of steel, taking at the same time the roll of a very practical mini-ventilated rib and of a brace for the assembly of the barrels. (unclear translation of the below - need help). (Depourvus du band du visee mais comportant une “tete d’aigle”, ainsi que l’on applait une triangle d’acier tenant a la fois le role de mini-band de visee tres pratique et de cale d’assemblage des canons.)
Particularly delicate to fabricate, these models possessed an incredible balance and liveliness, with their 2,9 kg weight in 12 gauge and their very grained wood. According to Michel Maisonnia, the son of Joannes-Aime, “Only one gun in two hundred were endowed with these Heurtier barrels.”
The succession from Aime Mainsonnial passed without problems and Joannes-Aime continued the work of his father. He took the reins of the enterprise and the number of guns made under his direction makes one wonder, Because if the fabrication books from the period 1920-1945 have disappeared, those from the 15 last years from 1950-1965 remain with the family. And the least that one can say is that they bear witness to an elevated productivity; nearly 3000 long guns were fabricated during this period, that is to say 17 guns per month, more that one every two days, - 3000 guns of incredible quality!
The Largest of the Best
Three thousand guns divided into 692 SxS’s with extractor, nearly 360 over/under (a bascule entaillee ou a faux-corps) (with action "entailed" or with false side-plates) , and moreover 2000 over/under ejector guns of which 83 were side-locks (fusil a platines). Nearly a record for one artisanal maker, Joannes Maisonniak said besides that he was “the largest of the best artisans.”
In spite of this success, Joannes-Aime would continue to make and produce guns during only the next 8 years after the death of his father. Suddenly in 1965 he lost one of his best workers. He became aware also of some radical changes which were effecting his line of work, among them the fact that retaillers made more money than he did for a sale of his own guns. This situation could not continue for much longer. This led him to close his manufacturing shop without selling it to anyone, and to set himself up as a gun shop repair-retailer in Vichy, He remained in his store until his premature death in 1978.
The mark Maisonnial therfore lasted only four decades if one excludes the five years of the war. Four decades during which some 6000-8000 guns were fabricated, of which several were top of the line such as numbers 7 and 8. 47 years later the name continues to live thanks to some hundreds of guns which function just as they did on their first day. And who knows - without knowing it you might have one of these? Who knows if your preferred SxS bears this discrete signature? Therefore check under the barrels of your Vouzelaud or your Gastine Renette…the initials A.M. might be there.
Thanks to the gun maker Elysee in Paris who authorized the photographs of the maisonnial guns which illistrated these pages and currently are on sale at his store.
Last edited by Argo44; 11/03/21 11:49 PM.
