F.N. Browning designs.

[John B.]

Roger B; Arnaud, Les, Roger H; Andrew, Mike, Rex and Ron.

Thank you all for your comments and replies, you all made good points.
There is a lot of good information and technique to be learned from the study of these prints especially by newer engravers who are looking to work their way up the artist engraver ladder by producing and earning a living with good quality but more affordable work at the eary stage of their career.
If you are one of the rare great artists right from the get go, then please ignore this.
As Ron mentioned there were strict time restraints that these engravers could expend on most jobs.
For instance the newer engravers at F.N./Browning were expected to cut 6-8 Browning over/under Grade 1 in a day’s work. The Grade 1 is not a masterpiece of engraving admittedly. But there are a lot of pieces and places that have to be engraved on each gun. I doubt I could place all the parts of 6-8 guns in my vise without damage and remove them without engraving in a day.
If they could not do their quota of Grade 1’s they were dismissed and not allowed to progress to the higher grades even though they may have been fine engravers.
Later, the engravers doing higher grades of guns were allowed more time but each pattern developed by the Masters had very strict time limits placed on them.
And if the gun had gold inlays they issued just enough gold down to the last mm. to do the job with no allowances for mistakes or gold that wouldn’t stick.
A wonderful but tough school of learning.

Some of their great Masters were as capable as our present day masters but were nearly always working to price and time constraints. It’s well to keep this in mind when looking at the work that they and the American factory engravers produced.
Beside these pulls I also have the school drawings of many F.N./ Browning students and will post some later if there is any interest. I also don’t want to violate any copyrights so must look them over first.

[capece rocco]

here's another model it's the "midas" very popular in the States

[capece rocco]

sorry the image was too big

[Roger Bleile]

Thanks for the print Rocco

Can you tell us whose signature is on the paper above the gun? Also how much time was allowed to engrave and inlay a Midas grade?

Thanks,

Roger

[capece rocco]

hello Roger ,the name of the engraver is R.Dewil,for made this engraving in 1992 we receve by Browning 1250 euros

[John B.]

Here are a few more F.N./Browning pattern control prints.
Engravers had to stay very close to these as they were cataloged patterns.
Best regards.

[John B.]

For those not clear about a F.N. built Browning Grade 1 over/under.
This is the pattern. To repeat, not a masterpiece but quite a lot of engraving.
The boss expecting you to engrave one of these in about an hour was remarkable.
These F.N. trained engravers were very fast.