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
Leclercq T.
Here is a revolver pinfire, marked
T. Leclercq
breveté (patented), folding trigger, very
long barrel probably to be shortened to one centimeter in front of the front
sight once the import procedures have been completed. (in a Latin American
country?) Above all, there is a lever on the left side to disconnect the barrel
from the frame and thus remove the casings from the barrel.
A member
of the team also looked at the device and here is the result of his research.
“One (only)
Leclercq T.
can be found in the “who is who of the Liège armoury”: gunsmith at Housse in
1859 and 1861; he filed two Belgian patents relating to improvements made to
revolver pistols. After examination, it turns out that these two patents have
nothing to do with the weapon we are dealing with.
He
continues: "The peculiarity lies in the presence of a side key for releasing the
barrel and allowing the barrel to be removed.
This key is found on a "patented
Comblain".
We also see some on
Galand,
but on the right side.
There is also the
Leclercq
system snake wrench, especially on the so-called poacher rifles and others, but
it goes without saying that it is later and has nothing to do with this
revolver.
Moreover
and above all, it must be remembered, as has already been mentioned several
times during the identification, that the mention "patented" has – at least –
three meanings:
1° that
the gunsmith has a patent = diploma
2° that
he has filed patents
3. that
the weapon in question is covered by one of its patents.
I admit
to my dismay that all this does not tell us who invented this lever, whether it
is on the left or on the right...
We note
the presence of two Liège hallmarks, ELG on a star in a crowned oval (accepted
between 1846 and 1893) and T under crown (controller). It also has an S under
another type of crown at the front of the cylinder, but it is unidentified.
GP with the help of HPH.
