Juan José Larrañaga
It is written “SMIT & WESON SPRINGFIEL MAS. USA PAT. etc..”
The spelling mistakes prove the copy; put aside the fact that it misses a serial number of serious S&W.
It is a copy, manufactured by 2 Basque arms manufacturers whose initial ones were J and L, like writing on the plates of stick.
It is about a “wild” copy, completely illegal. Not because of its model, but precisely because of these markings. On this subject, the Spanish legislation does not differ from the Belgian: since S&W forever deposited any patent in Spain (with n°, description, sketch and possibly prototype), the Iberian legislator automatically would have declared inadmissible very felt sorry for concerning a plagiarism or a copy of the weapon itself or its system, and would never have refused a patent application on behalf of a local copier.
The new research undertaken by a very active correspondent allowed us more on this logo.
In fact the initial ones of the plates are not J Y L, but J J L, which corresponds to “Juan Jose Larrañaga”, very known manufacturer of weapons with Eibar. It manufactured the plates of grips for other manufacturers.
It is for that that one finds these initial on others weapons punched by other craftsmen.
But this part has the plates and the punch. It is Juan Jose Larrañaga.
Larrañaga was one of the 4 principal manufacturers in 1870, with “Orbea Hermanos”, “Ibarzábal” and “Zuloaga”.
In 1884, associated Crispin Gárate, it melts “Larrañaga, Gárate y Cía”, candidate of “Anitúa y Charola”, well by front “Orbea Hermanos”.
This part could very well have been produced about 1894, time of the boom of the revolvers “Smith”, copies of the S&W.
This Larrañaga under treated also the polishing of the weapons for many other workshops.
