Submachine Guns Unleashed!
Offering a middle ground between bulky early machine guns and tough to handle machine pistols, the submachine gun came to dominate the WW2 battlefield
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“Engraved guns don’t shoot any better. My old woods-runner will shoot just as straight as your beauty.” Author and engraver E.C. Prudhomme has heard the arguments and disagreed, noting a long tradition of embellishing weapons as pride of ownership and that an attractive weapon draws better care and attention.
Arms, even when they were of the slashing and blunt force types were known to be adorned. Engraved firearms first appeared about 1380, and coloring, along with scrimshaw, wood and metal carving as well as gilding and silvering were early decorative methods. Inlays have been seen in Japanese matchlocks after they were introduced by the Portuguese in the 1500s.
Early gunmakers worked for royalty or nobility. The pieces they produced were often made for their benefactor’s enjoyment or for presentation to an ally or patron. By the 17th century gunmakers had elevated that work into an art form, hunched over a sporting arm, chiseling at the gun’s metal surface to decorate it with scrolls, vines, leaves, woodland creatures and mythical beasts.
Beretta was founded in 1526 and was one of the early gunmakers to establish a bottega that focused on embellishing its firearms and developing apprentices. Five hundred years later, the Beretta’s bottega still teaches foundational techniques, like using the hammer and inlaying during the five-year apprenticeship.
By the 1600s, French gun makers were making some of the most ornate firearms, combining gunsmithing, metalworking and engraving for some fantastic pieces. King Louis XIII is considered the first significant gun collector and his legendary Cabinet D’ Armes held amazingly intricate pieces. However by the end of the century, the extravagance waned. As land wars erupted across Europe, the focus was put on making more guns and less attention to adorning them.
This wheellock sporting arm from the cabinet d’Armes of King Louis XIII is the height of artisanship, bedecked with steel diamonds, gold and silver. The barrel is decorated with silver and gold damascened ornamentation while features like pierced ornamentation, silk underlays,foliate scrolling and decorative carving runs from stock to muzzle. Rock Island Auction was honored to sell this royal piece in August, 2024 for $881,250.
In the 1700s, British gunmakers with bespoke aspirations began to set up shop in London and Birmingham and looked to Paris for inspiration before diverging from the French opulence. More refined, by the early 19th century, firms like Boss, Westley Richards and Purdey & Sons were making names for themselves as some of the finest gunmakers in England.
This double barrel flintlock shotgun by Joseph Manton shows the craftsmanship and precision that bespoke British firearms would be known for. Manton would train employees that would go on to start their own businesses, like James Purdey and Thomas Boss.
In America when guns were still coming from Europe, the Kentucky rifle was the first American-made firearm to bear some form of embellishment by European settlers in Pennsylvania and other locales. At the time embellishments were more likely a carved stock and an engraved and pierced patchbox rather than embellishing the locks. As manufacturers benefitted from the Industrial Revolution and mass production, gunmakers were hand engraving, starting with early pepperbox guns.
Samuel Colt’s earliest guns often had a scene roll engraved on the cylinder. What is known as the centaur scene is on early pocket and belt model Patersons. A stagecoach holdup winds around the cylinder on the No. 5 Paterson. The Walker had a scene of Texas Rangers vs. Indians as a tribute to the Rangers that advocated for Colt. Colt’s 1851 Navy, the 1860 Army and 1861 Navy models all showed the Battle of Campeche, won by the Texas navy.
By the mid-19th century, Colt was trying to set his business apart from his peers and took a cue from European royalty by giving brilliantly engraved presentation pieces to people who might help his nascent company – government and military leaders and influential businessmen. The company offered custom engraving and various levels of engraving done at the factory. Despite the leap in manufacturing processes, the finest gun engraving was still done by hand.
Gustave Young, who set the standard for Colt engravers before leaving to set up his own shop, engraved this Colt Third Model Dragoon revolver known as “The Millikin Dragoon.” Its fantastic scroll engraving leaps off the metal’s blued finish and features dog heads on the barrel lug and frame and a wolf head on the hammer. Rock Island Auction had the pleasure of selling this magnificent cased piece in May, 2019, realizing $1.667 million.
Colt and Winchester utilized the talents of skilled artisans, many European immigrants, to carve beautiful designs into their guns. Colt’s roster of engravers is legendary, as Gustave Young set the bar and many of the company’s designs, while Cuno Helfrict embellished the company’s guns for 50 years, well into the 20th century.
The Ulrich brothers, Conrad, John and Herman, made their mark with Winchester, though the family did enjoy some crossover with Colt. Their parents emigrated from Germany where their father was trained as a machinist and worked for Colt in the United States. Conrad, also known as C.F. Ulrich learned under Young at Colt in the early and mid-1860s but had a personality conflict with Helfricht and left to join Winchester.
Demand for engraving at Colt was on the decline before the introduction of the Single Action Army, drawing the Ulrichs away. Conrad also worked for Marlin, establishing their engraving program. When Young left Colt he set up his own shop and engraved for a number of gunmakers.
Conrad Ulrich, among the dynasty of Ulrich gun engravers, created this dazzling gold and silver inlaid and engraved Peabody-Martini single shot rifle for Providence Tool Co. that was displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
As the United States Centennial approached, plans were made for an exposition in 1876 that would draw companies from across the country to show off their products. Colt and its wheel display of highly engraved handguns was there along with other gunmakers including Smith & Wesson, Winchester, Sharps and Merwin Hulbert. Providence Tool Company displayed a magnificent engraved and silver and gold plated Peabody-Martini single shot rifle engraved by Conrad Ulrich.
L.D. Nimschke might be the finest of the German-American gun engravers of the golden age of gun engraving. His work, for manufacturers like Colt, Winchester, Smith & Wesson, Marlin, Remington and others utilized broad floral scrolling on punch-dot backgrounds and animal scenes as well as portraits and patriotic motifs, battles and more. It is estimated he engraved about 5,000 guns during his career, many of them documented in his “pull book” of designs.
This engraved silver Winchester Model 1866 may be L.D. Nimschke’s finest work, with semi-relief panel scenes engraved and monogrammed as a presentation piece of Mariano Melgarejo of Bolivia, sold by Rock island Auction in December, 2021 for $977,500.
Scrolling and border designs used by engravers can date back to 3,000 B.C. when they were architectural features. Since some of the German-American engravers were trained at art schools, they were familiar with the scrolls and flowing patterns from the Middle East and antiquity.
Gustave Young’s vice scrollwork is considered arabesque for its interlacing and flowing patterns. John Ulrich’s “row of hearts” can be found in decorative grillwork in Middle Eastern Cities like Cairo, Jerusalem and Istanbul, while his row of arches can also be found making their way from that region to Europe. Other features found in engraved guns like endless knots, Greek frets and cross hatching also have origins in eastern Mediterranean region.
This Colt Single Action Army shows Master Engraver Cuno Helfricht’s flowing arabesque scrollwork around the frame and on the barrel as well as latticework behind the cylinder that originated from the Middle East.
English scrolls appear more as pinwheels grouped together often surrounding a rose rather than the free-flowing scrolls seen on American firearms of the 19th century. The English patterns, from gothic architecture and manuscripts of the Middle Ages tend to be smaller, making for a more refined appearance, though sporting arms have been seen with larger English scrolls taking up more space on the receiver, providing a different, bolder appearance.
This P.V. Nelson over/under shotgun is a fine canvas to display the intricate scroll and rose engraving of Master Engraver Keith Thomas. This fine sporting arm sold for $152,750 in Rock Island Auction Company’s August 2024 Premier Auction.
During the Civil War, Tiffany & Co., the New York City jeweler, made presentation swords for Union officers and later moved into creating brilliantly embellished firearms after the war. Smith & Wesson revolvers were often the recipients of the company’s adornments though firearms from Colt and Winchester also received the Tiffany treatment. The guns were engraved, pierced, silver plated and jewel-studded. Several of Tiffany’s objects were displayed at several World’s Fairs and today the Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a handful of Tiffany guns in its collection.
Engravers like Gustave Young and L.D. Nimschke were occasionally involved. Some of the guns used enameling and chemical etching to decorate the guns, rather than traditional hand engraving. Tiffany produced about 50 guns before ending the project in 1911.
This Smith & Wesson .32 caliber single action revolver is adorned in the art nouveau style by Tiffany & Co. and was displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The silver Tiffany grip covers the frame and recoil shield with a Rococo style floral blossom pattern along with depictions in relief of the three Muses from Greek mythology. The barrel and cylinder have an etched floral scroll pattern on a matte etched background. It sold at Rock Island Auction in December, 2020 for $207,000.
Gun engraving, from the highly adorned pieces displayed in the armories of princes and lords, to the fanciful Wild West guns to the modern bespoke shotguns and double rifles, is a fascinating part of fine arms collecting. Rock Island Auction is proud to offer such decorative pieces from across multiple genres and eras and share them with collectors of the centuries old art of gun engraving.
This fantastic engraved Colt Officer's Model revolver will be available in the May Premier Auction.
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