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.

[PaulK62]

Fast forward to 2012, and after enjoying the kurbelspanner being a part of my collection for three decades, I decided to sell it. I took these photos in the pre-digital age on 35mm film. Earlier today I reached out to the person I sold it to because I couldn’t recall what its serial number was (stamped next to Julius’ trademark, which was located on the metal strip that the barrel rested on, and not on the underside of the barrel like I incorrectly recalled in the post referenced above). He confirmed it was SN 221 (or batch 221, TBD).

[ptdunk]

Thanks to PaulK62 for starting this thread, great to hear how he came across those lovely examples.

Some info from the arms expert in the Zella Mehlis museum in Germany:

Julius Will (1854-1928) was born in Zella st. Blasii (Zella Mehlis) and was the older brother of Oscar Will (1861-1926)
It's assumed they both started working at their fathers company (Ernst Leo Will). Julius set up his own company in Zella st. Blasii in 1884 (company name unknown)
Oscar Will took over his father's company in 1888 and named it 'Venus Waffenwerk'.

Although they had seperate companys it seems they worked together on some projects, John Griffiths mentions a Kurbelspanner pistol that had the hidden Julius Will 'JW' mark, but the volute springs had Oscar Will's 'OW' mark so perhaps they collaborated.

Here are some pictures of a Julius Will Kurbelspanner which someone asked me to help identify, as you can see it has the same engraving as the Bugelspanner, so it's reasonable to assume this is a feature of the Julius Will guns. It's great to know we have a verified Julius Will Kurbelspanner pistol, as well as Kubelspanner and Bugelspanner long arms.



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The engraving is very refined, I wonder if Julius did this himself?

Interestingly they also had two brothers who moved to the U.S:
Both born in Zella st Blassi/Zella Mehlis: Adalbert in 1856, and Karl in 1848. I bet they got involved in airguns somehow, it would be amazing to find any record of them in the U.S

There was also a previously unknown brother who made gallery airguns on the other side of Germany. I discovered that but that's a whole story in itself, which I'll share a bit later

There are some pictures of airguns referred to as Julius Will airguns but without pictures of any markings so I don't think it's useful to include them.
I hope the new owner of the Kurbelspanner pistol recently sold in the UK can find some stamps under the barrel flat, I bet that's a Julius Will too.

If anyone else has pictures of any Julius Will marked airguns please add them to this thread.

Cheers,
Matt