Originally Posted By: L. Brown
Definitely 1924 or earlier, otherwise you would not have 12 over a C in a diamond. It would be 12-65 inside a sort of capital C if it were later than 1924.

L'abeille means "bee" in French; reve is dream. So somebody had 5 dreams about bees???

I've seen guns marked L'abeille before but don't know anything about the maker. Not at all unusual to find Belgian guns sold by French shops, even though France had its own very active gun industry. I've currently got a Belgian 16 that has a Paris address (C. Mode) on the barrels.


Larry,

An earlier date would make sense because of the chamber. However, if the C is really a 1924 date stamp, then we have 2 controller's stamps that are undocumented. Is this common? The early 1900's controller stamps I have seen have all been things like *AE, ie double letters. There is no evidence in the proof marks of a later reproofing that I can see.

I do find what is missing interesting. Mainly the barrel weight is not seen anywhere that I can tell.

Pete