Julius Will Airguns

[PaulK62]

Taking Matt's suggestion on this post...

https://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread...3974-A-bargain

...below are more photos of my Julius Will bugelspanner. The telltale sign that it was built by Julius and not his younger brother, Oscar, is his distinctive trademark, a 'J' superimposed on a 'W' stamped below the barrel next to its serial number (or batch number?) of '1'.

I always enjoy hearing other collector's stories of serendipitous discoveries, so, for those interested in that sort of thing, here's how I stumbled across both it and its little brother, a kurbelspanner air pistol:

In the early '80s, I posted an ad for vintage airguns in my local newspaper (San Jose, CA). Most responders owned a common Daisy or Crosman, typically rusty and broken. But one elderly gentleman claimed he had an old engraved underlever air rifle for sale. Upon visiting him, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a bugelspanner. As you can see in the photos, it was in rough condition. However, much of its gorgeously engraved plating was still intact, as well as the barrel's silver inlay, and he only wanted $50 for it (those were the days).

After I closed the deal, he pulled out a big thick sock -- not a gun sock, literally the type you would wear on a cold day -- containing a kurbelspanner pistol and its original crank. It too was in rough condition and had what appeared to be an ancient but rock-solid repair done to its broken wrist. But hey, it was a kurbelspanner, hard to find in any condition, and it obviously came from the same maker, complete with similar engravings and silver inlays. Unfortunately, he said it wasn't for sale, so I asked if I could come back the following week to take some photos. He agreed, and when I returned, his wife, a sweet gray-haired lady, was with him. As I was positioning the pistol for photos, they were whispering back and forth to each other. Finally, his wife stepped up to me and said, in a very serious tone of voice, "We decided to sell it, but not for a penny less than $200."

Coming soon: Photos of the kurbelspanner.