Flobert .22 rifle top-break(?) w/ no markings,, need ID help

D

DALeclair

Inactive
I've been reading through all related Flobert postings and don't know if what items referenced are anything like mine. I've also done multiple searches on-line for info, but with no luck.

I was told that mine is Belgian & manufactured in the mid-late 1800's. It's a single shot "top-break" (I don't know how else to describe it, maybe tip-frame???), and has NO markings at all.

It has an octagonal barrel that measures 23.5" (give or take a centimeter or two). Total length is 39.5”. It is for right-handers (cheekpiece is on the left), and is very ornately engraved. There is no rust, so it isn't cast iron & a fairly weak magnate grips the barrel very strongly. There is a beautifully scrolled lever in front of the trigger guard which is also very ornate - have not seen this design in any images that I've looked at. Please see the attached photos.

Please help me identify what this rifle is and maybe value. Thanks
 

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Perhaps there is something I'm not seeing. A Flobert design uses only the weight and mass of the hammer as a breech block.. A Warnant design uses a small pivoting plate as a breech block. Your rifle has a breech block between the hammer and chamber. To my untrained eye what yu have is a late 1800's target rifle in 22 Short or 22 Long. If I'm wrong some one please correct me, the good lord knows I've been in error before.
 
Flobert rifles were so common that at one time ANY .22 or other smallbore single shot was known as a "Flobert" in Europe, just as any autopistol was called a "Browning" and any lever action rifle a "Winchester."

Your break action rifle is shown in the 1911 Alfa catalog for 10.40 marks, actually a mark less than a plain finish Warnant ("trapdoor") Flobert.
They don't even show the original Flobert, obsolete by 1911.
 
Also, if it's lacking markings it's not Belgian. The Belgians were very thorough in their proving, they even marked old flintlock pistols that got refurbished for export in the 19th century.
 
This is what the ALFA and WUM catalogs call a "Roux" carbine, after the apparent inventor; all of these rifles use that sort of bottom lever opening mechanism, usually with an extractor, and you can see them in rifle and shotgun formats up to 9mm rimfire.
 
BTW if it's German the proof marks would be on the base of the barrel next to the locking hook, so Germany didn't start mandatory proof marks until late in 19th century (1888 I think) so it might predate that.
 
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