Today’s biography is a guest post by our friend Robert White – thanks, Robert!
Henri Pieper was born and raised in modest German home in Soest (Westphalia) Germany on Oct 30, 1840. He received his technical training in Soest and then in Warstein. Then emigrated to Belgium at the end of 1859. Moving around from Herstal and a short period in the wool industry of Verviers, he finally settled in Liege after marriage. He established his firearm manufacturing business “Anciens Etablissements Pieper” in Liege in 1866. The rapid growth and success of his business was partly due to an excellent decision he made early on in the purchase of a barrel factory in Nessonvaux. Some of Remington’s finest double shotguns of the time have the maker’s mark of ‘HP’ on them from this factory. It didn’t take long for him to become famous for quality and moderate prices.
In 1870 his 6,000 square meter workshop on the street of Bayard and along with his barrel factory in Nessonvaux in the valley of Vesdre was primarily manufacturing shotguns for export.
In 1887, Henri Pieper joined the “Manufacturers of Weapons” association of Liege. Along with the factories Jules Ancion, Dumoulin brothers, Joseph Janssen, Pirlot-Frésart, Draws up-Laloux & Co, Albert Simonis and the brothers Emile and Leon Nagant with an aim of obtaining large government and military contracts.
The following year, he took part in the Belgian army tests to replace the outdated Comblain rifles with a modern repeating rifle. He submited two Mannlicher style rifles. One with a rectilinear action and another with a rotary Schulhof action. Both lost to Mauser which was adopted as the model 1889.
He was then contracted to help with the creation of the Belgian National Factory which would manufacture the model 1889 where he remained as a major shareholder and administrator.
After this, he assisted in the development of a “gas seal revolver”. His design lost the competition for the new Russian revolver contract to the Nagant brothers’ design. But model 1893 revolver was very popular in Mexico along with a revolving rifle of the same type. Very few of these remain and command a high price. Most found by today’s collectors are worn and heavily used.
About 1897, the Pieper workshops launched into the manufacture of bicycles and cars. Amoung other designs he develops and patents a gas-electric hybrid automobile. The same basic concept of the Toyota Prius 100 years later:
“Be it known that I, Henri Pieper, a subject of the King of Belgium, residing at 18 Rue des Bayards, in Liege, Belgium, have invented new and useful Improvements in Mixed Drives for Autovehicles…The invention…comprises an internal combustion or similar engine, a dynamo motor direct connected therewith, and a storage battery or accumulator in circuit with the dynamo motor, these elements being cooperatively related so that the dynamo motor may be run as a motor by the electrical energy stored in the accumulator to start the engine or to furnish a portion of the power delivered by the set, or may be run as a generator by the engine, when the power of the latter is in excess of that demanded of the set, and caused to store energy in the accumulator.”
But while Henri Pieper may have been a great inventor, his timing was horrible. The year before his patent was granted, Henry Ford built the first assembly lines in Detroit to produce the Ford Model T, the first affordable, mass-production car. It would cement the primacy of the gasoline engine to power road vehicles.
Nicolas Pieper was born in Liege on October 31, 1870. The second son of Henri Pieper and Catherine Elisabeth Leroy. At the early age of 13 he was training with his father. Before his fathers premature death at the age of 57, he took the helm of the firearms factory in Liege while his brother Edouard Herman took over the barrel factory in Nessonvaux.
Theodor Bergmann of Bergmanns Industriewerke had won a small 3,000 gun contract with the Spain but failed to find funding to manufacture them and sold his Spanish contract to Anciens Établissements Pieper. Nicolas Pieper had been seeking new business since he had lost his Belgian army contracts to Fabrique Nationale. Nicolas Pieper also bought the rights to manufacture and sell a commercial version of the Bergman Mars.
The Spanish contract and commercial productions of the Pieper Bergman Bayard 1908 are marked:
ANCIENS ETABLISSEMENTS PIEPER.
HERSTAL-LIEGE.
BERGMANN’S PATENT
In a few short years, the over diversification of the company put him in bankruptcy. Nicolas, with the help of his brother-in-law, Auguste Lambrecht, rebuilt the business, and named it “Factory of automatic weapons Nicolas Pieper”.
Nicolas would also purchase the rights to several automatic pistols patents from another arms manufacturer in Liège, including Jean Warnant. After making his own refinements and improvements, he would market them under the trade names Démontant and Basculant automatic pistols (both tipping-barrel types without extractors).
The Basculant, also called model 1909 was manufactured under license by Waffenfabrik Steyr in Austria, until the 1930s. Pieper made an attempt to market the pistol in the United States as well, with a prototype version in .45 ACP. Also, inspired by the patents of his father, continues to manufacture shotguns of various types.
With the outbreak of World War 1 factory production mostly stopped because of the occupation of Belgium. After the war, in 1918 he acquired the patent of an arms manufacturer named Hippolyte Thonon – a copy of the FN Browning model 1906. Pieper marketed this under the name Légia, and produced it in Paris until 1922.
Nicolas Pieper died in his family home in Liege ten years later in 1933.
References
Ezell, Edward C. Handguns of the World
Wilson, R.K. Textbook of Automatic Pistols
www.Littlegun.be
U.S. Patents
Henri Pieper
US405906
US488366
US504501
US507449
US623104
With mustaches so stately, they clearly deserved nothing but success.
“The year before his patent was granted, Henry Ford built the first assembly lines in Detroit to produce the Ford Model T, the first affordable, mass-production car.”
Despite the popular belief the first mass-produced was Oldsmobile Curved Dash not the Ford. The key to Ford success was that he establish the network of workshops.
“The Basculant, also called model 1909 was manufactured under license by Waffenfabrik Steyr in Austria”
Steyr produced Model 1908 pistol in .32 Auto and Model 1909 pistol in .25 Auto. According to http://www.hungariae.com/Stey08.htm the Steyr version slightly differ from original Pieper: “The angle of the pistol grip was increased, the grips were attached with 2 screws instead of 1, the barrel was lengthened, the rear sight was revised.”
Thanks for posting this!
I have an old Cadet sized Martini Type action that has been partially scrubbed. It has the Bayzrd Knight on it. I always who made it, it also has the Liege monument proofmarks.
Now I know who may have made it. I wish I had pictures of it. It is with the gunsmith who will hopefully screw and headspace a .357 Magnum barrel.
What an incredibly insightful and interesting in-depth study of so much of the oft-ignored aspects of firearms history and the people associated with it — I think we owe a great deal, to say the least, to Robert White and Ian McCollum for presenting this valuable information.
(missing part) with it “platine”(percution system) that does not disturb the mechanism and the easiness of it maintenance make this THE PERFECT HANDY WEAPON.
After comparative tests between all the automatic pistols systems , the spanish and danish governements adopted the BAYARD pistol as ordnance weapon. Such dinstinction obviously establish the superiority of this pistol.
Dimensions of the pistol :
length: 250mm
Heigth: 145 mm
Width : 32 mm
lenght of the barrel : 102 mm
caliber : 9mm
ammount of stripes: 6 mm
length of the cartridge : 35.5 mm
wheigh of the cartridge : 12.75 gr
wheigh of the bullet : 8.3 gr
wheigh of the pouder : 0.45gr
initial speed : 360 meters per seconds
wheigh of the gun with empty magazine : 1000 gr
translation from a french fan
If you want I have a picture of an old publicity to add on the article.
Kind regards
Sure – my email address is admin@forgottenweapons.com. Thanks!
So I know that this is a very late question to add, but does anyone know if this is the same Henri Pieper who was making shotguns under the name “Richards” in Liege, Belgium at around the same time (roughly 1880-1890)? If so, does anyone know if the double barrels are as dangerous as many people claim or if that was only a three inch shell in a two and a half inch chamber problem?
Hi i have two questions could you give me information on all of the electric fired pre 1898 firearms that you know of and when will you be making a ALOFS shotgun video THANK YOU BRET!
I have a 12 gauge 30.06 side by side Belgium rifle supposed to be only two made what is it worth
Hello,
Could You please give me some information about Pieper Herstal gun JUST POSE CAINS EXT.(H-DB), FACTORY NUMBER 227 404, CAL 16. And aproximetly value of the gun.
Thank you very much.
RESTORING ABOUT 25 ROLLING BLOCK RIFLES THAT WERE IN A BAD WILDFIRE MANY YEARS AGO .
oNE OF THE SMALL 22 CAL REMINGTON MOD 4,S IS THERE FIRST STYLE . tHE BARREL WAS BADLY BENT FROM THE FIRE AND HAD A THICK CARBON SWISS CHEESE LOOKING CRUST . aFTER I GOT THE BARREL STRAIGHTENED OUT THE BARREL NOW HAS AN ODD TEXTURE AS DO SEVERAL OF THEM WHERE THE CARBON LEECHED OUT OF THE STEEL . THEN SAW THE H. PIEPER BELGIUM NAME ON TOP OF THE BARREL .AND ALL THE CAL MARKINGS ( CROWN THEN SIDE WAYS R THEN SIDE WAYS A WITH STAR ON TOP THEN FL.22 L CROWN SIDE WAYS THEN AN OVAL …..
Any idea where can I order a hammer mechanism as one side of my shotgun got lost
Thanks for your posts . I recently learned about this gun maker . I am currently saving and restoring around 25 Remington rolling bock rifles that all burned in a bad wildfire a few decades ago in California. The last owner was planning on just breaking them all down and sell as parts . Thats where i stepped in to save them for what they were All were rare models and were in pristine condition pre fire . The bores are still all about mint . Yet all the barrels I have had to straighten out .
One of the small calibers I had thought was a number 4 remington turned out to be a Henri Piper . After removing the gray carbon that leached out of the steel you could read the markings on the top of the barrel .It was copied from a number 4 remington .
I have two of the 12ga sxs sidelock shotguns. I had the appraised shortly after I bought them. They appraised very well. Lately there is more and more info on the internet about Pieper.