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OWD,

I have little to no experience with doubles. I am not a student of the double. I cannot tell you If August Francotte made doubles, nor can I tell you if he made parts for doubles.

I can tell you during that Golden era of English Gunsmithing, Francotte supplied the English trade with gun parts in all shapes and forms. The business was so good that up to the early 1890’s he had a shop in England, in London I believe, to deal with the business. The Golden Era was the transition from the Muzzleloader to cartridge gun. Some very innovative and intriguing firearms designs were developed during that time; both singles and doubles and towards the end bolt action and automatics (full and Semi.) The industry required parts and Belgium supplied them. In England the Gunsmith fit and finished the parts out to the high standard in which the English Gun is known. The fact that Belgium parts were widely used to make singles shots during this time, only reinforces my belief that it was widely practiced through out the trade and included doubles.

Do read Winfer’s wonderful books as he has much more detailed information than my feeble memory can provide. His books focus on the British single shot, but so much can be learned about the entire Gun trade during that time period by reading his work. From his research it is obvious to me that there is no good reason to believe that your fine English doubles do not have at least some or even a great deal of Belgium Heritage with in.

The Double Gun Inquisition Board of Directors is now meeting and I will be branded a heretic and burned at the stake…

The Martini runs the full gamut of models and price ranges. From the basic military Martini to its civilian versions; Volunteer and trade patterns to the basic sporter patterns, to some truly elegant richly engraved models. Can we not forget our often quoted hero John Taylor makes comments on a gold inlayed Martini that he dropped in the river, was it the Zambezi? Auguste Francotte made a full range of very high quality Martini’s.

There were many different makers of the Martini in England. All the usual government contractors like BSA in all its incarnations, LSA, HRB, Webley, Martini and many others. Most likely also your favorite double rifle smith made them up. Braendlin Arms was probably the biggest English supplier of Martini action bodies for the commercial market. Most English made Martini’s have some sort of mark or code identifying the maker.

But there are a large number of well known Gun suppliers with very English names selling Martini rifles that are only English by their engraved marks. Retail guns if you will. Here are some examples:

I have seen this action style with several different makers’ names on it. The top two are mine and are marked I. Hollis. The bottom is marked Robert Jones. I don’t believe these actions are English origin as they are all very conspicuously not marked by maker. I have also seen this style marked W.W. Greener and Thomas Turner.

In defense of the Belgium guns I will say this. There is a group of Martini’s called Muscat Martini’s. They are often found with both English and Belgium proofs and view marks and sometimes the word English make. Most found now days are in pretty rough condition as, they were well used. But recently I have seen several English and Belgium made Muscat Martini’s in extremely fine condition and the Belgium made ones were every bit the quality of any English Martini I have encountered.

But enough about Martini’s this is about Double Guns.

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DD, Ret.

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