Lefaucheux pinfire revolver

I recently came into possession of this old beauty. It's a pinfire revolver, still in working condition. Double action but I'm not sure of the caliber. Not that it would matter, ammo for pinfires or s incredibly expensive. But it's still kind of a neat gun.

It's got a lot of engraving, and it's got an inscription on top of the barrel, no idea what it says though.

The coolest part is that it came with a leather holster that even has a retention device. It's got a little metal tab that secures the trigger guard. The gun safety standards must have been a little looser back in the day; to remove the gun from the holster you have to put you finger on the trigger and push the the metal tab in. Granted, the trigger pull on the thing is like 20 pounds, but still. Kinda quirky.

That's a beauty. It's amazing the workmanship that went into the older firearms.
As for calibers they had them all over the place. I have some rounds in my collection. .22,.32,.36,.38,.and one near 60 cal. Jon

Nice !!

Nice revolver!

Have you typed it in the top Search bar of your computer yet?

Yes. It says " A Francotte brevete a Liene", or maybe the last word is "Tiene", not sure. A Francotte was a gun maker who made fancy guns and worked with Lefaucheux, brevete means patented, I'm unsure about the Liene/Tiene part though, and I don't know hat it means as far as the history of the gun.

Last word is probably "Liege". look for a Belgian proof mark on the rear of the cylinder-letters ELG in an oval.

Wow, what a cool piece to have. Super cool and the workmanship is fantastic. You are a lucky person to have that in your possession.

The engraving is French. Loosely translated it says “never fired and only dropped once”.

Coonlove has it right. All guns made in Belgium, like the nice sidelock shotgun I bought a few months back, have the barrel(s) proof tested in Liege, a city in Belgium where virtually all the people working in the gun trade were together. The proof house was a serious place and they would test each and every barrel with a charge larger than the desired proof. If the barrel(s) held together they got the stamp from the proof house. I know nothing of Belgian pistols but next to every proof mark on a European shotgun will also be the chamber length in mm and the acceptable load size.

August Francotte, (there is an A. in front of Francotte), was one of Europe's finest gunmakers. I sold three Francottes in my store of different grades but even the simplest was a thing of beauty.

Enjoy it.

Pete

Think it says something to the effect of “Free The Patent” or “Cross the Tie” in Corsican. So says google translate. If it makes any sense to anyone here. I could be super wrong but it might be the gun makers patent. Not sure why it would be engraved so large on the top of the barrel though. Uneducated guesses at best sirs

Cool gun!