Some of the most beautiful work of this craftsman are in this book “The Francotte Dynasty”.
For more detail see: The Francotte Dynasty
FRANCOTTE Auguste
Percussion shooting carbine made by
Auguste
FRANCOTTE in Liège, Belgium.
Mark of the Proofhouse of Liège (ELG in oval) and
AF from
FRANCOTTE.
The calibre is unknown due through the lack of information from the owner.
We use the name “shooting carbine” because of the sighting, a little more
elaborate than the classic back-sight, although it is quite crude (in our XXIst
century eyes anyway).
This carbine should have been made between the years 1820/1830 and 1860/1870.
There is quite an anachronism between this period of fabrication, and the prize
small plates screwed on the butt. The plates, in Danish, come from a first prize
given by the Home Ministry in 1871 and from a prize given by the city of
Fredericia (Jutland) in 1876. But we have to realize that at this time, metallic
cartridges were already used.
First we thought that it was a prize carbine given by
the Danish Home Ministry in 1871. But how can the plate form Fredericia in 1876
then
been explained? And this plate is followed by another
one (also in 1876) with, maybe, the name of the shooter. We also noticed that
the screws of the plates are different.
Everything considered, it could be a shooting carbine used – succesfully – up to
1876 by a shooter who got a prize from the Home Ministry in 1871 and another one
from the city of Fredericia in 1876.
Anyway, it is a reality that Belgian arms were much used and appreciated far
from Belgium.
We had contact with the (very interesting) museum of Arms of Copenhague but they
could not help us. In the XIXth century, shooting was very popular, there were a
lot of competitions because shooting was then seen as a “national” sport (also
for the defence of the country, of course… times change…). And shooting prizes
were very various!
Let us also remember that
Auguste
FRANCOTTE made revolvers fort the Danish
Cavalry and Danish officers.
GP
