I recently came into a fine Mauser sporter with this name on the barrel. I'd guess it's 1930s vintage. The work is first quality, and I'm curious to know id Ernst was a maker or a retailer. Thanks.

He just may have been a maker of sorts. Looks to have been born in the mid 1800s and expired in 1932. Ernst had some sort of German patent for parlor room cartridges.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

This gunsmith did have his own shop in Nurnberg he has now moved to 4 miles away from me.
http://www.buechsenmacher-kaestel.de/