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
The Family SAUVEUR
The arms
manufacturer Henri Sauveur & fils
The accidental discovery at a flea market of evocative
objects of Liège's armoury sometimes brings back the ghosts of the past. Indeed,
the discovery of several serious typographic prints on boxwood depicting early
twentieth-century precision pistols with the
H.S. mark in a
diamond raised many questions.
Let us
examine these typographic plates which actually serve as a matrix for the
elaboration of the copper plate which itself will be used for printing.
Typographic print (13.5 x 7.5 mm) in boxwood engraved by J. Lacroix in Paris and depicting two pistols, one with a drawbar and the other with a snake key, probably in calibre 6 mm.
This second picture represents a precision pistol and
bears the mark H. Sauveur in a cartridge.
It is engraved on boxwood (13 x 5 cm). The engraver is also J. Lacroix in Paris.
The third picture (17 x 5 cm) also represents a
precision pistol with a shot for Flobert cartridge and bearing the
HS mark in a
diamond. The engraver is unknown, as its
mark has been erased.
This
fourth shot represents three precision pistols with one shot for Flobert
cartridge 6mm, snake key.
They also bear the mark
H. Sauveur in a
cartridge.
This
boxwood plate (16,3 x 7,4 cm) was engraved by F. Fassin rue Destruveaux, 36 in
Liège.
History
The newspaper of arms manufacture of Liège of July 1910 published by the Union of the Manufacturers of weapons of Liège, indexes mark HS without rhombus and allots it to Henri Sauveur et Fils.
The consultation of the industrial and commercial directory of 1924, teaches us that the company H. Sauveur & Fils was installed at that time Rue Hors-Chateau, 9 in Liège.
The factory was located Rue St Léonard, 627 and one branch was established in Gand, Marché aux oiseaux, 2.
Two other addresses are indexed in Liège, one Rue St Gilles, 253 and the other Rue sur la Fontaine, 84 without we being able to determine if they are used in turn or at the same time.
Henri Sauveur would have begun his activities from manufacturer arms manufacturer in 1903.
In 1910, it takes again the activity of Sauveur, Jean until 1923, date on which Jean takes again his own activity.
In 1933, Henri again takes again the activity of Jean and that of Sauveur Joseph.
It seems that the activity of this company will last until in 1938 pennies the denomination of Sauveur H. Fils & Co. We also meet mentions of patents deposited at the end of 19th century and at the beginning of 20th by Sauveur Henri-Mathieu, Sauveur H.J.M. and Sauveur H.J.M. & Fils. It seems that it is each time Henri Sauveur under different denominations.
It also appears that Sauveur Henri was a highly skilled gunner because it took parts the shooting proof of the Olympic Games of London in 1908. On his experiment, amongst other things manufactured weapons of shooting of precision which according to its publicity were illustrated in numbers of international contests. The house manufactured also long weapons such as rifles of shooting Flobert, Mauser and Martiny, shotguns to central fire and pinfire Lefaucheux. Out of weapons of fist, it produced weapons of shooting of precision to 50 meters, revolvers of defence gauges of them 9 and 12 mm and of the automatic guns systems Browning, Colt, etc.
Production
This
company produced rifles such as Flobert Mauser & Martiny rifles, shotguns,
shotguns for central cartridges and Lefaucheux pinfire.
In handguns it produced high-precision 50-metre firing
pistols bearing the
Sauveur brand, 9
and 12 mm calibre defensive revolvers, Browning, Colt automatic pistols, etc.
It acts undoubtedly of a family of manufacturers of Liège ignored whose production so much out of weapons of fist than out of long weapons gains to be discovered through publicities of the time.
The
advertising materials of the period
GG
