Chapter 2 – Facts and Figures

2.7 The Hanquets – Gun Dynasty of Liège

 

2.7 2.7.1 2.7.2 2.7.3 2.7.4 2.7.5

The Hanquets – Gun Dynasty of Liège The Hanquet Family Story Let’s Reach Back Through Time Ferdinand Hanquet’s Vision Hanquet’s Guns in Historical Perspective Recollections of a Contemporary Witness

 

2.7.1

The Hanquet Family Story

 

For centuries the Liège area in Belgium was a center of gun making and international gun trading. Today many of the smaller manufacturers are absorbed or have simply disappeared. Others like Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre (FN) are now members of multinational conglomerates specialized in weaponry for police or military. Well-known companies like Francotte found their market niche and supply the high-end customers with luxurious rifles. Famous Grimaud switched from manufacturing to import and wholesale.

 

2.7_1 Cased set of percussion pistols made by Jean Baptise Hanquet 1850 (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

2.7.2

Let’s Reach Back Through Time

 

The roots of the gun makers‘ dynasty of the Hanquets go back to the 18th century. The blacksmith Martin Hanquet (*1738-†1810) served local farmers in a Liège suburb. He added ironmongery to his shop. His son Martin (*1764-†1837) diversified the line into making nails for the booming shipbuilding industry. Thanks to his entrepreneurial attitude he smelled the down spiralling of the latter and branched out to selling guns as early as 1796! But he started another nails, copper, edged weapons and firearms business in 1809. Martin Hanquet Jr. retired aged 62 and passed his enterprise to his children Jean Nicholas, Jean Baptiste (*1800-†1877) and Jeanne Francoise. The firm was renamed Martin Hanquet and Cie. When the company was liquidated in 1829 Martin took over the nail business again, Jean Baptiste the warehouse and Jean Nicolas the guns.

 

2.7.3

Ferdinand Hanquet’s Vision

 

In 1836 Jean Nicolas Hanquet entered into a venture with Ancion et Fils to become market leader for military guns. Their new company named Fabrique d’Armes de Liège (F.A.L.) was registered as Ancion, Hanquet et Cie. They were the most important gun makers of that time. Between 1849 and 1859 they made around 60,000 to 70,000 guns per year with a record high of 91,164 in1850. That equals more than 20 % of the total gun production of all Liège gun makers combined.

In 1840 Jean Nicholas opened a branch office in Rio de Janeiro to conquer the South American market for the family business.

Brother Jean Baptiste Hanquet merged warehouse and gun business in a new gun manufacturing company. While his production output was lower than F.A.L. he was already number four in Liège in 1849, after F.A.L., the Renkin brothers and the Pirlot brothers.

His son Ferdinand Hanquet (*1842-†1909) grew the business further but first relocated the company in Liège to Rue du Laven. Of Ferdinand’s six (6) sons Paul (*1889-†1938), Emmanuel (*1881-†1944) and Emiel (*1888-†1918) worked their way up in the family company now registered as Fand Hanquet.

 

2.7_2 1865 picture of Ferdinand Hanquet (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

2.7_3 Liège made pinfire revolver marked H for Ferdinand Hanquet (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

Ferdinand Hanquet made his business visions come true and finally merged with Fabriques d’Armes Réunies and Fabrique d’Armes Unies de Liège. The name of the new company was Fabriques d’Armes Unies de Liège (F.A.U.L.) see picture below.

 

2.7_4 Early company poster of Fabriques d’Armes Unies de Liège (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

After his death Paul Hanquet took helm, assisted by his brother Emmanuel. Paul was to be President and Emmanuel Chief Executive. In 1938 Paul was succeeded by another brother, Joseph.

 

2.7_5/2.7_6 Cousins Hanquet (from left) Paul Hanquet Jr. (*1907-†1986); Albert Hanquet (*1915 –†2003: pictures courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

The successors were Paul Hanquet Jr., Paul’s son and cousin Albert, Emmanuel’s son. Albert’s daughter Nadine, born in 1947, was in charge of Fabriques d‘Armes Unies de Liège (F.A.U.L.) from 1974 after Paul (1969/70) and her dad had stepped down, until 1992 when the company was sold.

 

2.7_7 At Rue Trappé Nr. 22, Liège in 1972: Albert and Nadine Hanquet in front of F.A.U.L. (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

The gun production at F.A.U.L. was discontinued in 1976, three (3) years after the production of the Centaure was terminated. When the Hanquets’ gun business was sold in June 1992 core activities during the later years were the gun import and wholesale.

 

2.7.4

Hanquet’s Guns in Historical Perspective

 

Few gun manufacturers can live in the civilian market from hunters and sport shooters alone. To survive a profitable government business is mandatory. That is a gun business fact today and was yesteryear. Many Liège gun makers made and still make great efforts to sell their weaponry to the Americas. Military muzzle loading rifles were an important financial backbone of the Hanquets‘ during the 19th and the 20th century.

# During the American Civil War 1861 to 1865 Jean Baptiste Hanquet supplied muzzle loading rifles and muskets to compete with Enfields and Springfields. After the war these now obsolete muzzleloaders were replaced by cartridge loaded rifles.

# When U.S. arsenals wanted to get rid of their muzzle loader surplus after the Civil War many of the Hanquets‘ rifles were brought back to Belgium. Because Hanquet realized the emerging colonial markets and had these rifles altered for sale in Africa. Since natives there could not have modern cartridge firing rifles this alteration meant fitting smooth bore barrels! Hanquet’s muskets and shotguns had a reputation of excellent quality and were sold then to colonial markets like Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and other colonies with vast hunting grounds. For the English colonies this alteration had to be pushed even further and a flintlock had to be fitted. Until the 1950s regular sales were an unbelievable 5,000 to 6,000 specimens of such crude but shootable and functionally constructed hunting rifles per year. They were made of composites of old and new parts.

# After World War 2 many former colonies were released into independence. The subsequent change of their gun regulations during the late 1950s left the Hanquets with a huge inventory of muzzle loaders and spares. The good news came from the western banks of the Big Pond with the hype for old firearms collecting, reenacting, replicas and commemoratives.

 

2.7_8 F.A.U.L. advertisement from ca. 1961 of .54 cal. flintlock replicas of Harpers Ferry 1807 and Virginia 1812 pistols

 

Between 1960 and 1980 thousands of finished guns and gun kits were sold into the U.S.A. but also in Europe. Therefore, many of the Hanquet rifles made this trip over the Atlantic now for the third time.

The Centaure percussion revolvers certainly were a highlight in these endeavors! To this F.A.U.L. added a line of replicas of flintlock and percussion rifles, shotguns and pistols.

 

2.7_9 F.A.U.L. made single barrel scatter gun in 17,5 mm cal. for natives of the Rain Forest

 

# But the Hanquets did not stop at muzzle loading rifles. The end of the 19th and the early 20th century was the hay market for their simple, little cartridge revolvers for self-protection and concealed carry: the fat one in .44 cal. was dubbed BULLDOG, another one in 5,6 mm cal. called VELODOG targeted at the cyclists, even another one named PUPPIE.

 

2.7_10 F.A.U.L. .22 cal. revolver with folding trigger, marked THE LIEGE UNITED ARMS CO LTD on bridge (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

Most of these revolvers don’t feature a Hanquet manufacturer’s trademark but the Liège ELG oval proof mark only. Because their international dealers preferred to apply their own logo.

# During this time a line of pistols was launched under the F.A.U.L. trademark Centaure, registered in May 30, 1913 to Emile Hanquet. You will note from below pictures that the centaur of the logo changed guns over time: the centaur totes a pistol in the early logo, but a rifle in the later one!

 

2.7_11 F.A.U.L. corporate logo used in advertising: Pistol pointing to right in early version (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

 

2.7_12 F.A.U.L. corporate logo rifle pointing to the left in later version

 

# The stylized rampant centaur closely resembles the rampant colt of Colt’s (rampant colt design registered by Colt in 1890). It is different from the Colt TM but still close enough to signal the close cooperation between the two companies.

Later Fabriques d’Armes Unies de Liège (F.A.U.L.) manufactured a wide variety of guns under their Centaure logo. This also explains why no percussion revolvers with the Centaure logo have surfaced before 1960. FAUL simply did not make such revolvers after 1913 when the logo was registered. That is until the Centaure aka “1960 NEW MODEL ARMY” was officially launched in the U.S.A. in 1960.

# When John Moses Browning visited Belgium searching for a manufacturer and landed his deal with FN he had also approached the Hanquets. They settled for a Browning patent revolver named CHARISMA.

# During the period 1892-1907 the Hanquets manufactured copies of the Colt New Army and Navy.

# FN’s introduction of their auto pistol Models 1900 and 1903 evolved into a real blow for Hanquets‘ pocket revolver sales. Their answer to the threat was a revolver for the 6,35 Browning cartridge with folding trigger but without triggerguard; or, alternatively, with traditional trigger and triggerguard. The grip contained a little magazine for spare rounds. However, this was the end of the Hanquets‘ success with pocket pistols.

# During the Russian Revolution F.A.U.L copied the famous Nagant revolver in 7,62 Nagant cal.

 

2.7_13 F.A.U.L. 12 ga hammerless shotgun from 1925 marked LIÉGE UNITED ARMS CO LTD (picture courtesy Club Littlegun www.littlegun.be)

 

# The U.S.A. has always been an important market for the Hanquets. It is a little known fact that the Belgians replicated the Colt Lightning M 1877 revolver with a square butt grip. The mail order house Johnson Smith purchased quantities of this DA/SA revolver marked TEXAS RANGER in .38 Special and .44-40 cal. as well as their POSITIVE SPECIAL during the 1930s.

 

2.7_14 F.A.U.L. DA/SA revolver TEXAS RANGER in .38 spec. cal.

 

2.7_15 Close-up of F.A.U.L. DA/SA TEXAS RANGER in .44-40 cal.

 

# During World War I the Hanquets sold the lady’s revolver named SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL, a little gun with ivory grips.

# When Germany occupied Belgium during World War II F.A.U.L. was almost completely forced out of business. Machinery and particularly their huge gun collection had to be surrendered to the German Ortskommandantur headquartered near the citadel of Liège. The machinery was transferred to Germany. The collection, however, disappeared when the German troops had left Liège.

# After the war F.A.U.L. had some limited gun exports to neutral countries but they were back in gun production by 1948 already

# From 1950 to 1992 F.A.U.L. was the official Colt distributor for Belgium.

 

2.7.5

Recollections of a Contemporary Witness

 

I received an email from our FROCS #111 L&N Guy in the U.S.A. regarding his visit to Fabriques d‘Armes Unies de Liège (F.A.U.L.) in June 1962. Below is his report.

 

 

2.7_16 F.A.U.L. Company signboard in 1962

 

 

2.7_17 Racks of muzzle loading rifles, shotguns and Centaure Cavalries with shoulder stocks attached

 

“They had walls full of single barrel muzzle loading shotguns, that they sold to Africa.”

 

2.7_18 More Centaure Cavalries with and without shoulder stocks fitted

 

 

 

Updated November 27, 2023

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