Nice original ad for the Centennial. First time I've seen the manufacturing claim in print, which is interesting. Reading between the lines, manufacture is claimed to be done by "This same Firm" (note it's "this firm", not "the firm": since
many firms built Brevete revolvers) that made Brevete revolvers in the 1800's. That's whatever was left of "A Firm" after two world wars, about 100 corporate changes, and Nazi's literally co-opting every arms factory in Belgium, bearing in mind that the gun manufacturing industry in Liege in the 1800's was pretty much like the one in Gardone, Italy: Each had about 1000 tiny shops each making handfuls of small parts that were assembled more or less randomly by whoever had an order at the time. "Hey Pierre, send me some hammers, I need to make up some 1851's for an order I need to send to Denver". "Ok, Phillippe... I'll have the boy make them tomorrow, I'm making some springs for Jaques today and the boy is in Brussels buying walnut"... This was the size of the "Firms".
So we have the
same firm that made the Brevete revolvers in the 1800's making them in the 1960's? Maybe in some uninterrupted trail of company registry in the locaal business registry. A "firm" is a piece of paper registering a business. But we claim that Centaures were made by
*exactly* the
same company and with magical thinking then believe it was made in the *same factory* with some sort of corporate knowlage based on the experience of the old gunsmiths that made the Brevete Colts in the 1850's... Uhh..... OK...
Yes, it's probably true that the company registry of the maker can be traced back to the 1800's and has a paper connection to the manufacture of Brevete revolvers. And it's likely that the workshop was then flattened by a V-2 rocket (check history to see how Liege came out at the end of WW-II).
^^^ Engraving: You showed that in process at TFL when you were having it done, it's still as pretty now as it was then. I'm in the middle of selecting a suitable example from my collection to send to the same engraver (Charlie). He really does beautiful work and the Centaure is exactly the right revolver to invest this work into. Nobody would waste that work on a Pietta or Uberti.
Pohill: I've never seen any Brevete designs later than the 1851, but maybe only because I never looked. I'm going to do some searching now that the question has been asked. "I don't think so" is the answer for now, but... you never know.
As far as the subtle difference between the term "replica" and "second generation", even the Colt "Second Generation" revolvers are replicas, with major components made in Italy. Only the fact that final assembly and finishing was done in the USA (in New Jersey, of all places) allows them to not be marked "Made in Italy". There's nothing "Colt Hartford" about them. A well finished Uberti by any name is still really a Uberti.
Willie
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