The Dutch proof marks on the M1941 - where the could come from

[Adriaan de Jong 0]

The 5 pointed star.

I have been asking myself for somewhat longer why the 5-pointed star was used as a proofmark by the Dutch inspectors of the M1941s. This because the Dutch did not use this mark on any military rifle since the 1880s. On the Dutch M95 Mannlicher/Hembrug rifles your will find a crown with a letter(referring to the inspectors name). This one lookes like the one on my rifle 548G in one of the attached pictures.

Then I happened to take one of my Beaumont rifles, that is manufactured in Maastricht. What did I see: a fivepointed star on the action....This mark is unique for the Maastricht build Beaumonts. The ones made in Suhl(Germany) and Delft(Netherlands) do not have this mark. So, from that point one I started doing some research.

Now please beware: I am not a historican, just a interested collector. I do have a lot of literature about Dutch rifles, gunsmiths, collections etc. So I might be on the right track, but do not take that for granted.

This is what I found out:

The 5 pointed star as a trade/proofmark can be traced back to a document dating from the year 1283(!). This star was the official proofmark for weight, silver coins etc., and also functioned as a quality proof for products made in Maastricht(which can be found in the southern province of Limburg in the Netherlands).

Its oldest finding is in a church in Maastricht, where it can be found in a scupture dated back to 1490. The oldest known picture that contains the star is from a Maastricht painter called Jan van Brussel which dates back to the year 1499.

The star became part of the Maastricht citys coat of arms officially on September 15, 1819. At the same time a flag was introduced that was red with a silver 5 pointed star on it.(see attachments).

In the 1930s the Maastricht star was critized, it looked to much like the communists star. It was removed from the coat of arms, the flag was changed to plain white/red without it.

It took several attempts and it was not before 1993 before the city of Maastricht decided to get back to its historical roots, the flag was changed to the old model and the coat of arms contained the star once again.

At the end of this post, I will include some websites where you can find some more information.

What I cannot tell you is why of all things this centuries old mark was used once again (after about 60 years not being used on military arms) on the Johnson M1941, especially if you remember that this star definitely was a proofmark clearly restricted to products made in the town of Masstricht. It must have been made especially for this purpose, the inspectors in the Dutch Indies also used the crown with a letter.

So you have room for speculations.......

And: history sometimes takes strange ways. Remember that the Dutch ran the Dutch Indies to gain maximum profit from their colony. That did not go without suppression of the native people in what now is Indonesia. The so called "police actions" of the Dutch after the war ended to get control over the independence movement were so extreme, that the Dutch were stopped by the United Nations in the 1950s.

It is quite a coincidence(or not, I leave that to your fantasy) that the Indonesians put one symbol prominently into their new coat of arms after they got their independence from the not very popular Dutch: a five pointed star.........Take a look at it and at the Maastricht mark, and you will see they are more then a little bit the same.....I wonder if they realized where it has its origin.

The Dagger proofmark on the Johnson Barrel:

now, this one is a little harder. The dagger mark can be found in a similar shape on several historical firearms, and also goes back several 100 years. You will find it(see attachments) on a firearms made by a gunsmith in the city of Rotterdam. But it also can be found in the city proofmark of the town of Haarlem(both in the Netherlands).

So it could be, that the dagger mark is also a Dutch proofmark, but I cannot be sure about this. I could not find anything that links this marks to the Dutch inspectors, but maybe Jim or someone else here, can say more about it.

Where to find more information

http://en.wikipedia....richt_wapen.svg

http://commons.wikim...f_Indonesia.svg

http://en.wikipedia....t#Early_history

Book:

Hartmann's Dutch Gunmakers

I hope this little bit of information helps, maybe the saved archives of the Johnson Company cn tell use more about the proof marks used on the M1941s.

Adriaan

[webmaster 0]

Johnson's contracted an independent organisation to inspect their rifles after the factory strike of 1941. This was the result of low productivity, quality control and problems with JLMG's not working correctly. The USMC appointed GySgt. Frank Bottemer to oversee acceptance of weapons for the USMC and US Government at this time also.