New to me S. E. Laszlo of Hyscore fame imported Webley airguns

[45flint]

I agree wholeheartedly Mick.

It's not often something new about Webley history comes to light but thanks to many collectors on here such as Steve, when it does, the news is shared between all of us.

John

Without this forum I would have not known what I really had? Value of this forum so many instant responses from experienced collectors.

[greenwayjames]

This catalog they said belonged to Frank Mihalyi inventor for the Benjamin Air Rifle Company in St Louis. Is this rare and or new information on Webley US imports? I reread John’s article on “Coming to America” and no mention of Laszlo? Have no idea if this has been mentioned?

The date of issue of this interesting importer's catalogue would surely have been either late 1938 or very early 1939 by this time most British industry had been geared up to produce munitions for the imminent war which had been threatened for several years. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany September 3rd after the latter invaded Poland on 1st September 1939.
It would be quite easy to confirm that not many air rifles and pistols were made by W&S and certainly not for export in 1939. A US customer ordering a W&S air rifle/pistol would have been extremely disappointed aftersaving their pocket money.

[greenwayjames]

Laszlo’s brother, the inventor of the Hy-Score pistol started his work on it in 1940, but only after the war did they start producing it. Obviously more profit potential and maybe one of the most innovative designs for a simple spring pistol. A Webley connection would have made no sense for them now.

The point I was trying to make was that Hyscore as an importer at the time must have had contacts at W&S to be able to put them into their 1939 catalogue. Immediate postwar the UK would have been a bad choice for Hyscore on many counts. First as you say their pistol would be up against the W&S and second all efforts in the UK were in the other direction, exports, to help pay off the tremendous debt caused by almost six years of war. The tentative agreement with BSA as a UK distributor for the Hyscore concentric piston air pistol would have been much later towards the end of its production if not past it