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
Lairesse Louis (Maybe !!)
The revolver that you present is doubtless a revolver W. GRAH, it seems to correspond visually to the criteria of this weapon especially the on the left falling barrel, on the right for the NAGANT 1910 which is its model.
William GRAH was an arms manufacturer of Liège domiciled Impasse Jonkeu, 8. It’s patentee 5 deposited in Belgium.
Several elements present on your weapon leave me think that it was not manufactured by GRAH, it acts:
a) The plates on your weapon account for both St George embanking the dragon and on the GRAH the plate of right-hand side represents initial the WG interlaced!
b) Classification is not the same one as on the GRAH, moreover it is completely unusual to find this classification at the same time on the carcass and the barrel! I do not have any explanation to that, perhaps an imagination of the manufacturer?
c) The 2 L reversed and the mention "déposé" are obviously not a mark GRAH, it can thus act of a subcontractor or perhaps even of a copier, it was frequent thing at the time. Then to avoid the lawsuit, there was no question of leaving an identifiable mark about the weapon. That does not facilitate our task!!
I did not find a L reversed in the list of the marks of Liège deposited, only LAIRESSE, Louis, manufacturer of weapons street Saint Severin in Liege, credit at the same time that GRAH could correspond but there is NO certainty. The other marks struck the carcass are marks of workshop and cannot be identified.
The punches of the proof house of LIEGE are quite identifiable on the other hand, the ELG in a crowned oval is the acceptance of the proof of Liege post 1893 while A spangled is the countermark of the controller.
GG
