Yes it’s ugly but only second one I have seen with the St.Etienne mark on the barrel. Unique. Thought you guys should see. Anyone else seen any more
I think St. Etienne was the Sears, Roebuck of France. Biz will be along to enlighten us, I’m sure. But as I understand it, they ordered enough guns to get them custom marked. I also think that with that incredibly ugly Butt Pad and Poly Choke, $1000 is a pretty high minimum. I wouldn’t pay that, and I like Poly Chokes.
Yeh I think our biz is who enlightened me with something he wrote quite a while back now that you mention it. Most of the stuff I have learned has been from you guys over the last 10 or so years. Thanks
That’s bad boy would clean up pretty decent. Slap a new pad on it and you’d have something. I missed out on an Abercrombie and Fitch marked Auto 5 about a year ago. Wish I would have raised my max bid
I have seen a few of them on European forum and auction sites. I have a type 2 with the St-Étienne marking. It would be interesting to know how that 1909 end up in the U.S.. Here is the story about them on a post I made in the past on that forum. "The story continues. It turn out that Manufacture Française D’armes et Cycles was a French Business like Sears Roebuck that was selling amount others, sporting goods including firearms. Like Sears they were selling via catalogue. They had their private label like shotgun Simplex and L’idéal. I believe that because they didn’t have repetition arms amount their private label, they offered renowned brand such as Winchester, Remington and Browning with Manufacture Française d’armes et cycles engraved on the barrel. I was fortunate to find a 1912 version of their catalogue where you can see the Browning auto-5 offered, as well the Winchester model 1897 and the Remington model 10. The two latter model are famous for their use in the trenches during the first war. They also offered some customized services such as a second barrel to your desired choke and to my surprise they would fit a rubber recoil pad which I didn’t know was available at this time." Here is the link, go in the middle of the page http://browningowners.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-6-types-of-armes-de-luxe.8114/page-2
Germans peddled them too, check out page 9 http://www.germanhuntingguns.com/about-the-makers/gun-makers-catalogs/franz-kettner/
