Sorry Dean, I should have made it clear that Crown Works is indeed the name of Frank Clarke’s company (1930’s). Interesting comments re the tooling and as you surmise the Garanta does seem to be the last of these guns to appear. However it should be borne in mind that each model did not displace the one before it, as adverts show that the Briton, Limit and Garanta were on the market together for quite a few years.

In answer to your other question, we know for sure that the Diana 2 was introduced in 1931, and we also know that the Briton was introduced in the same year, and therein lies the nub of the problem. How did two near identical air pistols come to be made in two different countries by two different companies at virtually the same time? The year 1931 was a significant turning point, as up to then there had been no attempt anywhere to make push barrel pistols using pressed steel. Previously they had always been of heavy steel or cast iron construction.

The historical record certainly supports your suggestion that the push-barrel pistol design progressed from the USA to Germany and then to England. When Quackenbush introduced his pistol back in 1876 it was not very successful and very few were made. As you might imagine examples are extremely collectable today. However, the commercial potential of the design was eventually appreciated in Germany and the company Eisenwerke Gaggenau produced a range of cast iron pistols of this type from the late 1890’s onwards. This distinctive style of pistol came to be known collectively as “Dolla” pistols and other German companies made them up to the 1930’s. Examples were still being advertised in the 1940’s. Manufacture of the push-barrel pistol design did not migrate to England until the 1920’s, the first examples being the Scout made by Lincoln Jeffries and the heavy Briton made by Clarke.

Now this type of pistol is made all over the world and it is the most successful air pistol design ever. Clever fellow that Quackenbush.