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
SARTON Hubert
Drilling
of Liège manufacture for export to the United States. Outside hammers, rear
locks. "Pistol" butt. I don’t know if the part behind the key is a safety device
or the selector, either for the top two smooth barrels or for the bottom striped
barrel in calibre 38-55 Marlin: in my opinion, it’s the selector.
There is
also a part in front of the trigger guard whose function I don’t see.
SARTON
on the buttplate.
On the
locks: Leader St Louis Arms.
The
markings:
ELG on
star in crowned oval: accepted, in use since 1893;
X under
star: countermark of a controller, in use since 1877;
Peron:
inspection, in use since 1853;
EL:
provisional proof, in use since 1852;
On a
smooth barrel: no for ball: the barrel is choked. Marking in use between 1878
and January 30, 1897.
17.7 and
17.8: in principle, this should correspond to a 14 calibre, but I have doubts as
this calibre is so rare. It should be noted that there is no punch mentioning
the calibre on any of the three barrels: it was only on October 4, 1898 that
such a marking was introduced (for example 16 on C in a vertical diamond). In
any case, the rifle is dated before January 30, 1897, see previous marking;
JL under
crown: met, but not yet identified.
On the butt plate:
Sarton,
or
Hubert SARTON
(registered at the Liège proofhouse from 1891 to 1899); weapons manufacturer at
the Place de l’Université 4, in Liège. He filed five patents between 1890 and
1899, one of which was specifically for “modifications to three-shot rifles”:
patent 101054 of August 24, 1892. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to say
that this rifle is the patent in question. In addition, we will note the absence
of a mention
SARTON Patent
(or at least I don’t see any on the photos sent). Perhaps the gun was before the
patent was filed, but already manufactured/sold by
Hubert
SARTON.
In any case, the design of the patent clearly shows (in my humble opinion) that
the button behind the key is indeed the selector for firing the bullet cartridge
from the lower barrel.
Leader St. Louis Arms and Belgium are also seen on the
locks: according to what we find on the web, it would be one of the brands of
the Shapleigh Hardware C° of Saint-Louis Missouri
www.thckk.org/history/shapleigh-history.pdf
(Shapleigh Hardware Company History/Archive (thckk.org)
which was
supplied regularly in Belgium (often at low prices). Other sources report the
Crescent Fire Arms C°
(Crescent
Fire Arms Co. (american-firearms.com).
There
would also be a lot to say about the 38-55 Everlasting/Ballard/Marlin/Winchester
cartridge, but that would take us too far...
GP with the help of PHL.
