doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com Another German trade gun

Just won this one for cheap, couldn’t pass it up it looked so close to my other 2 16 Suhl trade guns. I think it really just needs a good cleaning and maybe reblue barrels. How about date and mechanics?

Um, Cateyes atop the frame, ebony in the Church Windows & sideclips, what more could you want.... What a snag and you have broken the trend migrating to a 12 bore.

From the »Nitro« Stamp and position parallel to the tubes, I would hazard a guess of late WWI or just after. Say 1917/1918 and possibly into early 1919 from Suhl.


Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Looks like ole Louis Lepper inherited the business of Edmund Hügel of Apolda, Germany in 1911, or that was when Lepper hung out his Gunmaking Shingle. I have no idea where that might be, but it must be close to Zella-Mehlis. There are some reference to Louis Lepper being in Z-M, but this gun looks to be all Suhl. Lepper was a very common name in Z-M.


Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Thanks, 14.25lop 29.5in barrels 6lbs 5oz. Looks like a GI bring back that was just used as a daily driver and taken decent care of. Great engraving, horn, and wood out the door at less than 500.00 I just can’t stop buying these guns.

That engraving on the floorplate is really tight. When you get it in your hands, pleasure us with a good foto of the floorplate.

Quite long tubes @ 75cm for a 12 bore.

And don't forget that Greener Crossbolt too....

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

I have checked out Louis Lepper. The name is a "Firma" and was already used in Frankfurt am Main in 1868, but one of his heirs continued to use it. In Apolda. Which is situated between Weimar and Jena, and a quite interesting old town in its own right, with many remnants of former industry. You Amurricans maybe should think of "Silent Hill". That's close enough.

7,35 Carcano, I need a bit more background on »Silent Hill« to make the connection.


Serbus,

Raimey
rse

»Dietrich Apel in our many years of friendship, always told me that the stamp of a »K« in a jagged circled was the mark of esteemed German barrel maker Kelber, and there were 3 of them & I think they were heavily pressed into service in the mid to late 1890s? In recent years, along comes Axel E. and he gives, with a little Black Magic & Stroke of the Magic Wand, that much like our Cockle-Burr Plant, Germany too has a similar plant, and maybe the same, that has fruit/offspring/seed with »little hooked thorns«, just like our Cockle-Burr and Beggar Lice, that very quickly & easily attaches to the coat of passerby animals and clothing of humans; all of which transport the seed to a new growing area. Axel E gives that since the K is in a „Ratchet“, or jagged circle, it is a symbol for the Klette seed & if you truncate the »e« off the end, then it reads „Klett“ and represents the talented Klett family of tubemakers, specifically Heinrich Klett. Now too the Klett family was somehow associated w/ the »Acorn« and a similar tale evolves; i.e. Acorn Folk are the Kletts. Anyway, if ifs and butts were candy & nuts, well all have a Merry Christmas w/ 2 choices of Kelber & Kletts.«


https://www.doublegunshop.com/forum...;Words=beggar&Search=true#Post675645

Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

I think this is kelber

[img]http://[img]https://i.postimg.cc/xT3DQ0zF/IMG-3632.png[/img][/img]

I’m not taking credit, hell I got the information from you.

I do like the more difficult attachment of the horn trigger guard on this gun, definitely a sign of quality even if a extractor gun.

The word "even" sounds more than a bit quaint through...

Very well could be. But there were the Keltt's & the Kelbers. Then the Kelber's split the sheet & there were 3 or more. Those are process marks in boring & finishing a tube/cutting a chamber. I would assume if a Script »WK« was on a tube that a Kelber, and not a Klett, worked on the tubes??

But either way, the marks are one of 2-3 families of tube makers.


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

Just be quite cautious with the Horn trigger guard bow as it is difficult to replace most times, but I actually prefer it.



Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

Not yet the explanation of my Silent Hill allusion that you had asked for, but here is firstly an impressive panoramic conspect on Apolda's former industrial history. Keep in mind however that these pics may have been taken between 2000 and 2015, and that Apolda may look different today. For all of East Germany, one can state that some buildings were restored and repurposed since, and many destroyed.
Enjoy:
https://patifakte.de/artefakte_apolda.htm

Carcano

Lovely History & fotos.

Was Applda heavy into passementerie¿

Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

Passementerie? Possibly, as an aside (yes, I know I had mentioned that in the Preßburg context, Kühmayer). One factory is mentioned for Apolda. But not "heavily".

So, was Passementerie more or an Austro-Hungarian thing that German?

Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

Here's another >>K<<(pink) tube mechanic on an Emil Eckoldt from 1925. The more the merrier I guess?

Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

Gun came in and surprised when removing crud from barrels. EA Merkel not a trade gun so to speak.

Good Catch on Ernst August Merkel of Suhl. He passed this Life in 1912 and his wife Marie Merkel was @ the Helm in 1913. His sons Ferdinand(Louis??) and Rudolf Otto were partners.
Ernst August Merkel was active prior to 1893.

Again that Scroll Engraving is quite tight.

Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

Now there was a Hugo Kirchner of Suhl who was a tubemaker from say WWI forward, but this isn't on the subject Ernst Merkel.



Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

But KI-„Künstliche Intelligenz“ gives that the single, cursive Gothic Calligraphic German Character(say that 3 times real fast) is not representive of Hugo Kirchner.



Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse