doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com The Wundhammer 99

The signature was added much later and the engraving is 100% Kornbrath.

This gun was at a gun show and a friend saw it and called me, said it was fantastic with a Owen stock and phoney signature.

Hell of a deal IMO.

Have to run I might need to bid ;-).

I think someone saw an oportunity to put together an RJK gun.

With an 'of the period' engraved M12 of what appears to be of quality and in my opinion a set of wood from another gun (perhaps an orphaned stock set), spliced together, then the RJK signiture added afterwards thru the bluing finish to add still more value.

The pheasent doesn't look quite up the 'K' standards of lifelike quality to me, the dog looks good. But again it's hard to tell from small pics.

The near 100% metal finish and extreme wear to the wood,,especially the grip checkering, still makes me think someone more recently put the two componenets together rather than they were originaly built that way.
Perhaps they are original to the gun and the metal has been reblued w/o polishing. Then an afterthought to add the RJK signiture.
A few different ways to go with it.

Seems like RJK would have at least marked it originally if it was his. He wasn't shy about signing his work, even if it was just a floorplate for a rifle.
Lots of engravers from that part of Europe cut that style of pattern,,they apprenticed at the same place. There's even some around today that can cut the style if they want to. It's not like it's a lost art or something.

"Seems like RJK would have at least marked it originally if it was his. He wasn't shy about signing his work, even if it was just a floorplate for a rifle"

I would say that Kornbrath marked less then 0.5% of his work, maybe even less than that.

Whoever got 975C may have got a good one, let us know. Hammer price was $550.

http://www.auctionflex.com/showlot.ap?co...m=1&lang=En

It's definately a cobbled up gun when it comes to a model twelve. The receiver is marked trap but has a skeet barrel on it according to the brochure. Could have been a 2 barrel set but the number on the extension tube is highly buffed and the wear doesn't match the receiver number. Also of a different size and may have been engraved to match the receiver number. It looks like a later 3 pin rib and serial number which would put the production date in the late 50's or early 60's. I would have to check the books. The wood is not original Winchester and does not look like it was fitted to this gun and so was probably added after the gun was originally manufactured. If it were mine, I would look for a minty original set of Winchester A or B carved wood. Hard to find though.

Perhaps,,but that number may have come about from all the work attributed to him,,but not necessarily done by him.

Look at all the work that's 'attributed' to Nimschke. It's not enough that he signed alot of his work, but the experts have given him even more entrys for his work book by attributing work to his hand.
His style isn't hard to do,,most any start up engraver in the US begins withat least a version of it. Many engravers of the day cut it also. As now, there are some very talented yet somewhat or totally unknown names doing fantastic work.

Even the late Lynton McKenzie who had a style most recognizable to his hand, suffered from copycats while he was still with us. It angered him that his signiture style was being taken and used by others. But it's just another cut and can be learned by an engraver,,the quality of the finished product depends on each individual of course.
There were/are more signed Lynton McKenzie guns out there than the fellow could have ever done in his short lifetime.

Where there's money to be made.,,,
Believe me,,I've seen both sides of it.

"Perhaps,,but that number may have come about from all the work attributed to him,,but not necessarily done by him."

That's my number from the Kornbrath guns I have examined and the few that I have owned over the years. I also have copies of the pulls he made and I think only one has his name on it.

There is no way to know how long the stock and shotgun have been together. Maybe it was written up at one time, I don't look at much Model 12 stuff, can anyone tell me what year the shotgun was made?

If someone replaces the stock I could store the old one here.

Michael, I'm sorry that I may have caused some confusion on the date of manufacture. I looked at the rib and thought it was a 3 pin rib which would date it as a later gun. I just went back to the listing and see it's only 298,000 so that places it at about 1922-23. The pictures of the gun showing the rib aren't the best. It has the Winchester duck foot on the receiver and if the top is matted and the rib squiggly matted with two pins holding it on, then everything is good. If the barrel rib has straight lines on it, then it is a later rib. A nice set of early custom wood would be OK as long as the whole shotgun was redone at some time. Bob

Thanks Bob, 1922-23 is right in there on the Owen Brothers style stock that this one is.

I'll stick with my hell-of-a-deal ;-).

I'm still doing a little digging but have never took much interest in pump shoguns out side of having them to use.