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
J. Marechal
These revolver are known as "Veldwachterrevolvers". They where distributed to police, customs, and people of several tax collectors. That is for example the one which is marked DvF.
That stands for Departement van Financieen. Department of Finance.
The LP of the cylinder of the Marechal stands for Losse Patroon. That means Blank. The first shot fired on a villain was a blank to stop him. If he doesn’t than was the real stuff send in.
The safety devices are great. The Marechal has an odd hook witch block the cylinder The Ancion Marx has a lanyard ring you can switch to safety. On top is the long bar true the grip room flattened so when twisted it can block the hammer.
You can find several names on the revolver. That where as you know not the makers but the one who ordered the revolver. "Munts" was a gunstore in Amsterdam. "Haarlems wapenmagazijn" was a distributor in Haarlem and that counts for the Jager in Den Haag to.
The KM on one revolver is probably Koninklijke Marechaussee. It’s not an Army revolver but a Customs revolver.
I forgot to tell you that the revolver witch is marked with an arrow and 1 and 2 on the cylinder means that the first shot is a blank, the second and third are shot shells.
Regards
Henk (Netherlands)
The retailer of revolver #1 is the firm Ned. Wapenmagazijn (=Dutch Arms trade) and from 1868 on this firm was a successor to an arms dealer in Haarlem, S. de Jager. (v/h means: formerly)
Later the name Ned. Wapenmagazijn was changed to Ned. Wapenmagazijn Haarlem Amsterdam Arnhem (see on revolver 2) when the firm was located in these 3 Dutch cities.
In this time the firm was taken over by Johan Munts in Amsterdam under the name Nederlandse Wapenhandel, which name means exactly the same as Ned. Wapenmagazijn.
In the end he worked under his own name Joh. Munts, and later this firm had several owners (Munts on revolver 3). In 1909 the firm was sold to P.B.W. Kersten who operated under the name Ned. Wapenhandel v/h Joh. Munts.
Kersten wrote a scientific paper in 1946 about criminal investigation related to arms and ammunition.
As far as I know the firm was recently liquidated (but is still in the phonebook).
All these changes took place between 1868 and 2009.
These 3 revolvers of the so called Kobold-type that you have bought form a nice collection in the history of these firms, or in fact of one and the same firm under changing names and under changing owners. They all sold guns and equipment to the civil market and to the government, police, customs, etc.
Several of these Kobolds are in the Police-museum. I send you of photo a complete policeman’s outfit in 1904.
“Je maintaindrai” on revolver 3 doesn’t signify ownership of the Dutch Army or the Dutch police! Munts added these words and his logo (lion holding a rifle) to make the weapon look “official”. This model with cylinder safety and Abadie loading gate was developed bij J. Marechal and J. Munts and became known as the “Je maintaindrai- model”. It was bought and used by municipal police forces in Amsterdam, Vlaardingen, Apeldoorn and other cities, costums officers, etc.
A large part of the archive from the Ned. Wapenmagazijn is still in existence, but has yet to be disclosed and researched.
I will ask mr. Arthur Dorst, who once was an associate with Munts for more information about the revolvers.
Bert (Netherlands)
Many thanks to Henk and Bert for these nice informations
The two others is here
