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The
Hanquets – Gun Dynasty of Liège
# The Hanquet Family Story
# Let’s Reach Back Through Time
# Hanquet Guns in Historical Perspective
# The Consortium of 7 Liège Gun Makers in the 1850s
# Hanquet 1851 Model Navies
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The Hanquet Family Story:
For centuries the Liège area in Belgium was a center of gun making and
international gun trading. Today many of the smaller manufacturers were
absorbed or simply disappeared. Others like FN are now members of multinational
conglomerates specialized in weaponry for police or military. Well-known
companies like Francotte found their market niche and supply the high-end
customers with luxurious rifles. Famous Grimaud switched from manufacturing to
import and wholesale.
Let’s Reach Back Through Time to the 18th Century
to the roots of the gun maker dynasty Hanquet. The blacksmith Martin Hanquet (1738-1810) served local
farmers in a Liège suburb. He added ironmongery to his shop which son Martin
(1764-1837) diversified into making nails for the booming shipbuilding industry.
Thanks to his entrepreneurial attitude he smelled the down spiraling of the
latter and branched out to selling guns as early as 1796! But he started
another nails, copper, edged weapons and firearms business in 1809. Martin
retired at 62 and passed his enterprise to his children Jean Nicholas, Jean Baptiste
(1800-1877) and Jeanne Francoise.
The firm was renamed Martin Hanquet and
Cie. When the company was liquidated 1829 Martin took over the nail
business again, Jean Baptiste the warehouse and Jean Nicolas the guns.
Ferdinand Hanquet’s Vision: 1836 Jean Nicolas entered into a venture
with Ancion et Fils to become market
leader for military guns. Their new company named FABRIQUES D’ARMES DE LIÈGE
(FAL) was registered as Ancion, Hanquet
et Cie. They were the most important gun makers of the time. Between 1849
and 1859 they made around 60,000 to 70,000 guns per year with a record high of
91,164 in1850. That equals more than 20 % of the total gun production of all
Liège gun makers combined. 1840 Jean Nicholas opened a branch office in
Rio de Janeiro to conquer the South American market for the family business.
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Rifle marked “H&Cie” for Hanquet & Cie |
Cased set of pistols was made by Jean Baptise
Hanquet 1850.
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Brother Jean Baptiste merged warehouse and gun
business in a new gun manufacturing company. While his production output was
lower than FAL in 1849 he was already number 4 in Liège, after FAL, the Renkin
brothers and the Pirlot brothers.
His son
Ferdinand (1812-1909) grew the business further but first relocated the
company within Liège to Rue du Laven. Of Ferdinand’s 6 sons Paul (1889-1938),
Emmanuel (1881-1944) and Emiel (1888-1918) worked their way up in the family
company now registered as Fand
Hanquet.
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Ferdinand Hanquet 1865 |
Liège made pinfire revolver marked “H“ for Ferdinand
Hanquet |
Ferdinand Hanquet made his business visions come
true and finally merged with FABRIQUES D’ARMES RÉUNIES and
FABRIQUE D’ARMES UNIES DE LIÈGE. The name of the new company was FABRIQUES D’ARMES UNIES DE LIÈGE (FAUL, see picture at top pf
this page).
After his death Paul took helm, assisted by brother Emmanuel. Paul was to be President and Emmanuel Chief Executive.
1938 Paul was succeeded by another brother, Joseph.
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Paul Hanquet Jr. |
Albert Hanquet |
Paul Hanquet Jr
(1907-1986), Paul’s son and cousin Albert
(1915-2003), Emmanuel’s son were the successors. Albert’s daughter Nadine, born in 1947, was in charge
from 1974 after Paul (1969/70) and her dad stepped
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Albert
and Nadine Hanquet in front of FAUL’s at Rue Trappé Nr. 22 (1992)
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down. The corporate sign at Rue Trappé Nr. 22
reads
FABRIQUES D’ARMES UNIES DE LIÈGE
SOCIÉTE
ANONYME ANCIENNES
FIRMES FABRIQUES
D’ARMES RÉUNIES FABRIQUE
D’ARMES DE LIÈGE FAND HANQUET The total gun production at FAUL's was
discontinued in 1976, 3 years after the production of the Centaure was
terminated.
When the Hanquet gun business was sold in June
1992 the gun import and wholesale business were the core activities during
the later years.
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Hanquet Guns in Historical Perspective:
Few gun manufacturers can live on the civilian market
from hunters and sport shooters alone. However, to survive a profitable
government business is mandatory. That is a gun business fact today and was
yesteryear. Many Liège gun makers made and still make great efforts to sell
their weaponry to the Americas. Military muzzle loading rifles were an
important financial backbone of Hanquet’s gun business during the 19th
and the 20th century.
# During the American
Civil War Jean Baptiste Hanquet supplied muzzle loading rifles to compete
with Enfields and Springfields. After the war these now obsolete muzzleloaders
were replaced by cartridge loaded rifles.
# When US arsenals wanted to get rid of their muzzle
loader surplus many of the Hanquet rifles were
brought back to Belgium. Hanquet realized the emerging colonial markets and had them
altered for sale in
Africa. Since natives there could not have modern cartridge firing rifles this
alteration meant fitting smooth bore barrels! Hanquet’s muskets and shotguns
had a reputation of excellent quality and were sold then to markets like Congo,
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and other colonies with vast hunting grounds. For
the English colonies this alteration had to be pushed even further and a
flintlock had to be fitted. Until the 1950s
regular sales were 5,000 to 6,000 of such crude but shootable and functionally
constructed hunting rifles per year. They were made of composites of old and new
parts.
# With many former colonies being released into
independence and the following change of their gun regulations Hanquet was left
with a huge inventory of muzzle loaders and spares in the late 1950s. The good news came from the other side of the Atlantic
with the hype of old firearms collecting, re-enacting, replicas and
commemoratives. Between 1960 and 1980
thousands of finished guns but also kits were sold into the USA but also in
Europe. Therefore, many of the Hanquet rifles made this trip over the big pond
now for the 3rd time.
The Centaure C&B revolver certainly was a
highlight in this endeavor! To this FAUL added a line of replicas of flintlock
and percussion rifles, shotguns and pistols.
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FAUL
made Harpers Ferry M 1807 flintlock pistol .54 cal. |
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…marked
FAUL under the barrel |
View of the flintlock |
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FAUL made single barrel scatter
gun 17,5mm cal... |
...said
to be made for the natives of the Rain Forrest in South America |
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# But the Hanquets did not stop at muzzle loading
rifles. The end of the 19th
and the early 20th century was the hay market for their simple
and little cartridge revolvers for self-protection and concealed carry: the fat
one was dubbed BULLDOG (.44 caliber), another one in 5,6 mm caliber called
VELODOG targeted at the cyclists, even another and smaller one named PUPPIE.
Most of these revolvers don’t sport a Hanquet manufacturer’s trademark but the
Liège ELG proof mark only. Their dealers worldwide would apply their own logo.
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FAUL’s early corporate logo |
# During this time a line of pistols was launched
under FAUL’s trademark Centaure, registered May 30, 1913 to Emile Hanquet. # This stylized rampant centaur closely
resembles the rampant colt of Colt’s (rampant colt design registered by Colt
1890). It is different from the colt but still close enough to signal the
close cooperation between the two companies. Under their centaur logo a wide variety of guns were
manufactured. This also explains why no percussion revolvers have surfaced
with the Centaure logo before 1960: FAUL’s simply
did not produce such revolvers after 1913. |
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FAUL’s late corporate logo |
That is until the “1960 NEW
MODEL ARMY” was launched 1960. |
# When John
Moses Browning visited Belgium searching for a manufacturer and landed his
deal with FN he had also approached Hanquet. They settled for a Browning patent
revolver named CHARISMA.
# During the period 1892-1907 Hanquet’s manufactured copies of the Colt New Army and Navy.
# When FN introduced their auto pistols model 1900 and
1903 this evolved into a real blow for Hanquet’s pocket revolver sales. Answer
to the threat was a revolver for the 6,35 Browning cartridge with folding
trigger/without trigger guard, alternatively with traditional trigger/trigger
guard. The grip contained a little magazine for spare rounds. However, this
ended Hanquet’s success with pocket pistols.
# During the Russian
Revolution FAUL copied the famous Nagant
revolver in 7,62 Nagant cal.
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12
gauge hammerless shotgun from 1925 marked… |
LIEGE
UNITED ARMS CO LTD |
# The USA
always have been an important market for the Hanquets. It is a little known
fact that the Belgians made a repro of the Colt
Lightning M 1877 revolver with a square butt grip. The mail order house
Johnson Smith purchased quantities of this DA/SA revolver named TEXAS RANGER in
.38 Special (below)…
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.38
Special cal. DA/SA TEXAS RANGER |
Loading
gate opened |
Barrel
markings |
and .44-40 cal. (pictures)…
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.44-40
caliber DA/SA TEXAS RANGER |
TEXAS
RANGER stamped on the bridge |
Close-up
of the grip |
as well as of the POLICE POSITIVE during the 1930s.
# Then there was the lady’s revolver SATURDAY NIGHT
SPECIAL a pretty little gun with ivory grips available during World War I.
# When Germany occupied Belgian during World War II FAUL was forced almost
completely out of business. Machinery and particularly their huge gun
collection had to be surrendered to the German Ortskommandantur headquartered
near the citadel of Liège. The machinery was transferred to Germany. The
collection, however, disappeared when the German troops had left Liège.
# After the war FAUL had some limited gun exports to
neutral countries but were back in gun production by 1948.
# From 1950 to
1992 FAUL was the official Colt
distributor for Belgium.
The Consortium of 7 Liège Gun Makers
in the 1850s:
The first Belgian Colts were made during the early 1850s, licensed Colt Navy M
1851s C&B pistols marked COLT BREVETE. Through his then-representative Colt had licensed a
number of Liège gun makers to manufacture his percussion revolvers when his
London factory could not turn out enough pistols to meet the market demand. But
that is only half of the story. To protect his Belgian patent from August 21,
1849 there was this provision in the patent laws whereby the article patented
must be produced in that country within two years from the date of the patent,
or the patent would become void. Therefore, his British patent Counsel, Mr. W.
E. Newton, of 66 Chancery Lane, London, went to Liège, Belgium and employed a
local gun maker to make several revolvers of Colt’s design. While that move
saved the patent Newton also discovered that several gun makers were infringing
on Colt’s patent rights. Many such guns had passed through the Liège proof
house, many for export into other countries.
To
address this situation Colt appointed a Belgian sales agent and lawyer by the
name Davos-Sera to look after his interest. Davos-Sera licensed other Belgian
gun makers to produce guns under Colt’s license AND to collect a license fee on
all such guns produced. But Davos-Sera’s way of doing business did not exactly
please the Colonel…and for reasons not known today the cooperation with
Davos-Sera was terminated. He was replaced by J. Sainthill, patent attorney of
Brussels.
The Missing Link: The story
goes that during one of his regular trips to Europe Sam Colt came to Liège in
April 1953 to straighten things out, to negotiate a new agreement with another
group of Belgian gun makers. He stayed there at hotel “Belle Vue” for the
negotiations took several days. J. Sainthill was able to arrange the meeting
with the gun makers Ancion & Co., Collette, Dandoy, Drisseur & Co., Hanquet,
Petry, Brothers Pirlot. As documented an agreement was reached and signed at
the end of April 1853. And a couple of these gun makers or their succeeding
companies rather found their way into the Hanquet's
family business Fabriques d’Armes Unies de Liège!
These are the companies: Albert Simonis, Antoine Bertrand
& fils, Pirlot & Frésart, J. Ancion & Fils, Joseph Tolet
& Cie, S.A. Fabrication des Armes à feu. There you have it
the missing link.
Hanquet 1851 Model Navies: Between 1829 and 1874 Jean
Baptiste Hanquet was in charge of the family business. He represented the
Hanquets’ interest in these famous negotiations of April 1853 with the Colonel.
1851 Model Navies manufactured by Hanquet with below 4 different types of
markings have been discovered:
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ADDRESS COL. SAML COLT NEW MODEL US PATENTED |
ADDRESS COL. SAML COLT NEW YORK CITY |
ADDRESS SAML COLT NEW YORK CITY |
COLT BREVETE |
By the way specimen of 1851 Model Navies made
by the predecessors and successors of above company J. Ancion & Fils (merged into FAUL later!) show the same
markings as the pistols from Hanquet. Coincidence or intention?
WDN/October 20, 2009
© 2007 Wolf D. Niederastroth