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smp190,
The "CH" after the serial number cannot indicate a manufacture date of 1927, since it was finished and proofed by Oct. 1913. The crown S means it was proofed for shot; a smoothbore is sometimes found with a crown B which means it was proofed for a single projectile (bullet). At this time the crown W only means the barrel was choked, the amount of constriction was not shown or indicated but they were usually pretty tight, especially considering the use of modern wads and shot cups.
Mike

Combing through the digitalized Gothaer Adressbücher, one is able to find out a bit more, by pieceing tidbits together nicely. As they say: first conjuring, then conjecture.

Edwin List was born on 2nd August 1872 in the small hamlet of Töttelstädt (right at the Prussian border, nearer to Erfurt than to Gotha). He died on 30th October 1946 in Gotha, at 74 years of age. He had lived through two world wars, and hopefully did not have to serve in either, due to age limits.
Initially he was Bataillonsbüchsenmacher (presumably in the Thuringian 95th Regiment of Infantry, quartered in Gotha). This means he was a civilian contract employee most likely, not a soldier. To accept private work, he would have had to require an explicit permit. After serving his (minimum 10 years) contract time, he was released into civil life and set up shop. After several more years, he was honoured to be accepted and titled as Hofbüchsenmacher between 1908 and 1909.

Though he was not the only one in the not-so-small co-residence of Gotha, there must have been a reason for the appointment by the young ruler HRH Carl Eduard von Sachsen-Coburg, who also was an avid hunter and a bit of a techno nerd (automobile? great shtuff! let's get several at once; --- aeroplanes? that's like, duh, an automobile with bird wings, right?! GREATER even, cool - let's build a factory to make those, none of my royal cousins has one yet!).
So it was done, and the rest is World War One history; quite to the dismay of his assorted English relatives after 1916/17.
Because he was also known as HRH Charles Edward, The [Royal] Duke of Albany, last of this title, grandson of Queen Victoria. :-)

Back to Edwin List. He had recently established himself and had just left the military when he ordered this gun for what may have been one of his first civilian customers (unknown Mr C.B., Esquire). It was originally black powder proofed, and in 1902, he was *not* yet Hofbüchsenmacher. Hence the divergent intitulation on the barrel rib. Several years later (I read 18, not 13, could be either? check with a loupe, please?), the gun was nitro re-proofed. By dint of its erstwhile owner? Who knows...

Carcano

I also found a hint to his birth and death dates, which do now nicely round the picture. Will try to incorporate both into the above posting.