Some of the most beautiful work of this craftsman, and many others, are in this book “Liège Gunmakers through their Work. 1800 - 1950”.
For more detail see: LIEGE GUNMAKERS
Guerriero alexandre (See Breuer)
Here is a large (hugely large) pinfire revolver designed by the Italian gunmaker Alexandre Guerriero who patented his design in Italy but manufactured the same in Belgium. I believe this would thus be considered a Belgian firearm because of where it was made. I have seen photos of two of these revolvers in better condition than the one we found, but ours is a very good example and has engraving, something the other examples lack.
Here is the information I have – I will attach several photos here and then more with a few succeeding emails as I have done before.
Alexandre Guerriero (Le Guerriero) Pinfire Revolver (early 1860’s).
Caliber: 15mm Pinfire.
Number of chambers: six.
Serial number: 2201.
Length of barrel: 6 inches (15.2cm).
Functions both single and double action.
Has a swing-out cylinder with an attached recoil shield (this is 20 years before others manufactured revolvers with a swing out cylinder).
Marks
On the right side of the action:
Systeme Italien
serial: 2201
the Guerriero Mark: GIIIV and Bp on both sides of crossed cannons? over Brevete
On the rear of cylinder: 1
On the side of the cylinder: Pre-1894 Liege proof, crown/X
I understand that the revolver received a silver medal in the weapons competition of the Royal Institute of Lombardy on August 7, 1863. Mr. Guerriero then moved to Liege where he supervised the manufacturing of his revolver which was produced by Breuer (of this Breuer I have no information). An agent in London filed for an English patent number 628 in 1863, and he obtained a French patent Nº 71326 in 1866. Guerriero's revolver was tested by the Vincennes commission of the French Military in 1864 and 1865, but was turned down because they found the mechanism “fragile” and subject to fouling. Evidently Mr. Guerriero then turned to the commerical market and offered his revolver in several sizes and chamberings.
I have only seen examples of Le Guerriero in the 15mm pinfire chambering, perhaps others are known. One interesting comment was that the revolver was made with only 9 parts.
Richard
