Krieghoff Commercial

[John D.]

Hi Pete!

Actually â?? you are asking a number of excellent questions in a very short post! If that was your intent â?? terrific job on researching exactly the correct questions to ask. Let me start by answering a few, and then â??drawing back the curtainâ?� a bit on the back-frame stamps. If you have other questions â?? please post back, OK?

First â?? the picture in Mr. Gibsonâ??s book with the rounded â??Gâ?� is correct. From the authorâ??s notes, it is on a correct serial numbered frame that falls within the correct serial range. Your question was actually discussed privately amongst some HK collectors in private not long ago, and I believe that I know itâ??s current owner. Anyway â?? in short, that HK has since been authenticated.

However â?? that raises a number of questions, as to the variations on the back-framed stamped HK reworks. Without giving anyone insight as to how to better replicate a back-frame stamp, there are a couple of identifying features â?? like I noted above (the â??Eâ?�, the base line of the â??Oâ?�, etc.). Spurious attempts are, well â??differentâ?�, without going into detail. (There are a LOT of fakes out there for this variation, as they were relatively easy to try to re-create, so buyer beware!).

In creating the stamp, we (I, and a few HK collectors, as itâ??s been my theory weâ??ve been discussing) currently believe that there were two stamps â?? a single â??SUHLâ?� stamp - and anther die carrier stamp with KRIEGHOFF. For example, if you look on a few HK back-frame stamped HK reworks, you may notice a slight â??|â?� to the left of the â??Kâ?�, which would be the carrier itself, and measured on stamp to stamp, will notice a slight change as the individual dies would shift in the carrier. This might also account for the â??Fâ?�, as after the initial strike from the dies in the carrier, an individual â??Fâ?� die would appear to be applied, as the last die â??Fâ?� strike would be â??lightâ?�.

As well, that would account for the appearance of the mis-aligned characters at the baseline.

Anyway â?? this is a very short answer to a long question. BUT â?? a great question nonetheless, Pete!

Hope this helps!