H. Pieper hammer shotgun with "Gold" inlay

stock_work

I have an 1881 H. Pieper doudle damascus barreled hammer shotgun. It looks like a standard no frills gun with no engraving only H. Pieper on the side plates. But there is one outstanding feature and that is a U shaped "Gold" inlay on the top tang. At first I thought they had brazed a tang extention on. It was brought to my attention the it could be a gold inlay so I had the acid test for gold done and it is gold.
Was wondering if anyone could give me any information about this.

Thanks

rufe-snow

Might be for the buyers initials or monogram? Need quality photos, for an informed opinion though. Most inlays I have seen in the past have been shield shaped, rather than "U" shaped.

charliemeyer007

google has listings here is one cut and pasted
1 year ago link

Henri Pieper built guns in Liege Belgium from 1877 to 1898.

He made every class of shotgun from cheap export pieces for the american hardware store market, to custom double guns.

from 1870 on he operated a 6000 sq meter (1.5 acre) gun factory in Vesdre. Much of the production was as automated as things could be in 1870. But there was also a custom gun department.

So, there's no way to **** your gun without a hands on, or really REALLY good detailed close up photos of the entire gun and the barrel flats and the receiver water table... but then it's a guess, unless it's one of the cheap members of the great "Gun lake"

if it is a cheapie... then the value is purely as a wall hanger... if not, then it might well be shootable.

Again, no way to truely access that without hands on.