F.Faukner and J. Nowotny - closing the open ends
....
I admit it has been the Nick Holt shop reentering a previously
unsold F. Faukner boxlock - 16-bore with Defourny self-opener -
at now 500 GBP into the next auction, which has triggered this
post.
To be clear, I have no association nor any interest in his nor
any auction-house business nor any gunmaking business/shop.
...
An English gundealer told me in a recent telcon that the Brits
dont buy English guns nowadays and less so an unknown Czech
boxlock with cracked stock.The present pattern/behaveour is
that the wealthy oldie shoots with a pair of Hollands and
drives a VW/Golf and the wealthy son shoots with a pair
of 2K Berettas and drives a 80K Range Rover.
...
F. Faukner / The Czech "Purdey"
DGJ spring 2009 had my article on this Czech gunmaker.
According my observation there should be descendants as the
grave has been well cared for. A disclosure of the
name/address of the person paying for the grave has been
denied by the cemetary administration at the time of my
field research.
I have invited/asked now a journalist/writer from Prague
- with learned profession of a historian - to try to
close on the open ends of this Faukner historia
and to include his findings under his name in a separate
post within this thread.
.....
Here are some photos re Faukner I have taken over time
...
Late Jaroslav Smid, stocker and scope fitter at Faukner before
WW II and still active in the Czech countryside when
I met him in 1995.
According this J. Smid the shopowner Jan Faukner -
son of F. Faukner - has been a proud man, wearing a
"buzinka"/bowler hat, and residing in his shop in
fashionable downtown Prague.
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57626....
The tools of the stocker
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57627....
Faukner has been agent for Steyr/Austria, the front page
of his catalogue
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57630...
Faukner tombstone in Olsany cemetary in Prague
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57628http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57629.....
J. Nowotny - the Czech "Holland"
DGJ winter 1995 had my article on this Czech gunmaker
with the info-status known at this time.
I met at one of my hunting trips a Czech hunter -with
pointer dogs -who collected catalogues.
I could copy his Nowotny catalogue.
The front page has a vignette/photo of Jan Nowotny
with the wording
quote
JAN NOWOTNY
zalozil zavod v roce 186x
*1839 + 1893
unquote
It means he founded his company 186x, the x could be
3 or 5.
The journalist I have mentioned before has told me
after he had written an article in a Czech paper on this
J.Nowotny suddenly descendants showed up at his office.
I have asked him to follow up on this and possibly
come up with some insteresting stories on this bygone
Czech world.
And to include it under his name herein.
...
J. Nowotny catalogue front page with the Nowotny photo
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57631....
History book on Czech gunmakers
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/57632....
Nowotny guncase label is included in the first post
of this thread.
...
This Prague Jan Nowotny has been the nephew of the
Viennese Matthias Nowotny. The sister of this Matthias
married Johann Springer, the ancestor of this still
existing Viennese company.
Johann Springer had moved to Vienna from a town in
todays Slovakia. So the Viennese Springers have -
despite their German/Bajuvarian name - Slovak/Bohemian
ancestry.
To show that the Nowotny history could be more
complicated , there is a book by Vladimir Dolinek
"Cesti puskari" - ISBN 80-206-0758-7, naming a total
of 12 Nowotnys working in the guntrade ( The book
covers the time up to 1900).
The son of this late catalogue collector, by learned
profession a gunsmith, but due to missing gunsmith jobs
is working in the metal processing industry. He told me
that he has a collegue reputedly a Nowotny descendant.
Given the rather common name of Nowotny this info
should be taken with some sense of caveat.
...
Felix Neuberger
(emptying archive/knowledge base)
