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Originally Posted by AHorsa
Is there still any possibility to assign the initials "P.F."?
Kind regards
Andreas
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Aha, a nagging question. Since the Middle Ages, Italian armorers often used only initials to identify themselves on their works. The same with the makers of gun locks and barrels. In some cases, the letters arranged and embellished in idiosyncratic style can be identified when compared with other corroborating evidence. Such as C.L.P. on some central Italian barrels, "Cristoforo Leoni in Pistoia", second half 17th cent. However, other instances are a mystery as of now, absent any other data and references. There is bound to be confusion when there are more than one artisan who had the initials working in the same region, city, and era.
I am faced with this conundrum at present with a piece in my collection, a hunting rifle built on an Austrian damascus barrel signed by Johann Schifter, 1690s, with typical Italian stock and everything else fitted to it. The Roman-style lock is marked only with D P on the inside of the plate. The trouble is that the only possibilities I have seen are two gunsmiths who had workshops in Rome, ca 1700, Domenico Principi and Domenico Politti. No facsimile of their "signatures" is contained in the only reference book that I have on them, and it seems that for many makers, the complier got information from documents such as municipal tax records that just mention names and occupations, not showing the actual markings on the objects themselves.