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Marcus:

A better pic of the underside of the tubes may provide some answers but I seem to see a "HG" near the forend lug and that would be more than likely for Heinrich Greifelt/Greifeldt(?). The Greifelt klan goes back to circa 1800 with Heinrich Greifelt & Samuel Greifelt being master gunsmiths with Stephan and Stephan Christian Greifelt either joint owning a hammer forge or each owning one. I guess the Heinrich Greifelt of circa 1900 to be the grandson of the master gunsmith Heinrich Greifelt of the mid 19th century. It is so difficult to retrace the family trees because the same name were used in a direct line as well as to nephews and the like.

So the question as to the maker is a complex one. Would you want to know who assembled it or where the components were sourced? Post WWI you can bet your hat that the whole of Germany, and other gunmakers, sourced Suhl, which as a whole was a rucksack gun making firm. Post WWI, times were hard and the Suhl area craftsmen were on par with any in the world were located near 2 proofhouses, which was another plus. Rail entered in 1882 and just like here in the U.S. of A., commerce flurished. Very German guns were made of non-Suhl components and most likely Post-WWI, components weren't sourced, but instead longarms in the white or finished were sourced. That's why you see so many examples that passed thru the Suhl/Zella-Mehlis proofhouse. It was just a matter of economics. Your "clam-shell" has a metal buttplate and upon 1st glance I would say it was made circa 1900 but the marks tell a post 1912 proof date and it was probably made from on-hand components. I seriously doubt that any firearms merchant here in the U.S. of A. would have any German maker info. But a German sub-contractor's list would pretty much be a Rosetta Stone.

Here's my canned response from composed info & ideas.

W. Foerster was one of the few retailers of a sidelock Muzzleverschluss with a Purdey nose. The boxlock verion of the Muzzleverschluss surfaced sometime in the mid to late 1890s. I think W. Foerster to have been long departed by then and for the most part his examples were sourced from Suhl. Opinion among some European hunters was that Otto Selisch of Wiesbaden made the Muzzleverschluss frames and sold them in the white to the makers in Berlin. The more examples I see, the less I am convinced of this. Bernhard Merkel offered a version and supplied components to Heinrich Barella. E. Schmidt & Habermann offered a double rifle Model 555 with a “stabile action” for smokeless powder while Greifelt & Company’s “stable action(barrel bedding)” double rifle was a model No. 260 with Krupp steel tubes. Therefore, this all but confirms that the “Clam-shell” double rifle components were sourced from Suhl and I’m leaning toward Sauer having been for the forge source, like some others. I don’t know if a Sauer “Clam-shell” double rifle exists but stamp info from the underside of the tubes just may provide a clue. I've read of references to a Romer/Rohmer/Romerwerke which was noted a "the great forge" of Suhl. But that's as far as I've gotten. The gunmaker info is going to take a lot of time and researching additional gun makers with yeild more info of previous searches.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

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