http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1826-439X
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Abstract
Basque gun making was an exception in early twentieth-century Spanish industry due to its high proportion of exports. The intense growth of handgun production during those years resulted from several factors such as Spanish patent law, the revolution in transport and communications, the electrification of manufacturing and the organisation of the sector as an industrial district. This article aims to analyse the role that brands played in this success, employing not only quantitative information but also the correspondence of one of the most important manufacturers of that time. Beyond counterfeiting, Basque gun making showed extraordinary marketing performance in which branding strategies were decisive for its success.
Notes
1. Castells, Los trabajadores.
2. ‘Around 1990, I walked into a gun shop and began chatting with the man behind the counter. He was a knowledgeable gun owner and a big-game hunter and had been in the business for years. … As we examined a shotgun together, I suggested to him that for half the money, you could buy a gun in Spain that was made to measure, with better wood, better engraving, and better overall workmanship. “Well, maybe,” he replied, “but Spanish steel is always suspect.” That statement sums up the greatest problem to plague Spanish gun makers in this century. For a variety of reasons, Spanish steel has acquired a stigma. It is a demon that steadfastly refuses to be exorcised.’ Wieland, Spanish Best, 121–122.
3. Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World, 286–306.
4. Casson and Wadeson, Export Performance, 36; Davis and Maniatis, “Trademarks, Brands and Competition,” 119–121; Helmers and Rogers, “Trademarks and Performance,” 56; Higgins, “Trademarks and Infringement,” 103–104; Schwarzkopf, “Turning Trademarks,” 165–166.
5. Calvó and Jiménez, 1840–1940, Cien Años, 15.
6. L’Armurerie liegeoise, 1 January 1906, 882. There was another gun making district in Brescia (Italy) but no information is available on its production figures for those years.
7. In 1906 the figure was 37% and in 1907 it decreased to 32%. L’Armurerie liegeoise, 1 March 1908, 1048.
8. Catalán, “Capitales modestos.”
9. Echevarría, Viaje por el País, 18–19.
10. This was the name of the former Orbea Hermanos.
11. Goñi-Mendizabal Eibar y la industria.
12. Markusen, “Sticky Places.” For Spanish industrial districts see also Catalan, Ramón-Muñoz and Miranda, Distritos y clusters.
13. Goñi-Mendizabal, “Evolución de la industria.”
14. Gun designers, for example John M. Browning, Georg Luger and so on, patented their gun systems in Spain, looking for protection that they did not receive. For the Spanish patent system, see Sáiz González, “Invención, patentes e innovación.”
15. Da Silva and Casson, “Brand Protection,” 308.
16. Some American firms, due to their reputation for high quality, received the same international recognition as the European proof banks.
17. ‘The shape of the safety catch also changed, and it became a large, bulbous, ribbed item, which always looks as if it were made by the blacksmith’s apprentice while the blacksmith was out. … The material was often of poor quality, and the workmanship was equally poor; … In fairness it must be said that not every “Eibar” pistol was cheap and nasty; many reputable firms owe their start or at least their subsequent well-being to the “Eibar” pattern of pistol, and produced quality weapons right from the start. But, regrettably, it is true that in this particular product, the shoddy outnumbers the good by a wide margin.’ (Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World, 13)
18. Ezell, Handguns of the World, 229–231.
19. Calvó, La Industria Armera, 144.
20. Henning and Witkowski, “The Advertising.”
21. Wieland, Spanish Best.
22. Lavin, A History of Spanish Firearms, 266.
23. Most of the marks published by Lavin (A History of Spanish Firearms) in the appendix of his book were from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. All the marks are of two types: the name of the gunsmith under a crown and the drawing of an animal.
24. Calvó, La Industria Armera, 58.
25. For the use of patents as trademarks see Higgins, “Forgotten Heroes,” 274–277.
26. This was one of the few contracts signed by the government with Basque manufacturers in the last decades of the nineteenth century (Calvó, La Industria Armera).
27. ERREXA is the Basque word for ‘easy’; BOTA CILINDRO is a strange combination of two Spanish words meaning ‘boot cylinder’; and EGOKIA means ‘appropriate’ in the Basque language. The last brand was used to designate the system used in cane shotguns manufactured by Víctor Sarasqueta.
28. This growth in the number of trademarks was not exclusive to the gun making industry. González Sáiz and Fernández Perez, “Catalonian Trademarks,” 255.
29. Calvó, La Industria Armera.
30. Calvó, La Industria Armera; Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World; Larrañaga, Armeros Vascos.
31. Duguid, “A Case of Prejudice?,” 317–318.
32. Casson and Wadeson, Export Performance, 39–40.
33. Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World, 28.
34. The spelling was incorrect in the registered trademark.
35. These small revolvers were conceived as a defence for cyclists against wild dog attacks. The name comes from the combination of the French word veló (bicycle) and the English word dog.
36. Antaris, Astra Firearms, 82–83.
37. The role of these certifying institutions on reputation has been highlighted by Casson and Wadeson, Export Performance, 37–38.
38. Wilkins, “The Neglected Intangible,” 69; Schwarzkopf, Turning Trademarks.
39. Casson and Wadeson, Export Performance, 41–42 .
40. Uncetabarrenechea is a Basque compound surname that means approximately ‘the house inside the area full of ivy’. It is common to abbreviate long Basque names, so in this case they used the shorter Unceta.
41. This patent, in which the pistol was called PISTO ESTOC, was the first to show the characteristic features ascribed to Eibar-type pistols (Calvó, La Industria Armera, 151‒152).
42. Calvó, La Industria Armera, 188.
43. For further information on E. Schilling and Thieme&Edeler see Calvó, La Industria Armera, 317‒319.
44. Gadisseur and Druart, Le qui est qui, 263.
45. Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World, 244.
46. Etxaniz, “Gernika-Lumo.”
47. The pistols that he complained about were the Titanic, made by Faustino Arteagoitia, and the Stossel, produced by Beistegui Hermanos. Letter by Pedro Careaga to Gerónimo Bolibar, Barcelona, 10/03/1914, Letter Copying Book (LCB) n. 7, Esperanza y Unceta Fund, Gernikazarra Archive (GA).
48. Letter by J. Esperanza y P. Unceta to Eduardo Schilling, Barcelona, 07/04/1914, LCB n. 7, Esperanza y Unceta Fund, GA.
49. Letter by J. Esperanza y P. Unceta to Ponciano Azanza from Brussels, then in Bayonne, 09/10/1915, LCB n. 13, Esperanza y Unceta Fund, GA.
50. The latter was a clear opportunistic reference to the battle in which the French troops stopped the German advance in 1914.
51. That is why these pistols were colloquially called ‘puro’, that is to say cigar; Ezell, Handguns of the World, 539; Hogg and Weeks, Pistols of the World, 245.
52. Astra pistols became the service handguns of the Carabineros (frontier guards) and prison guard corps in 1921 and of the navy in 1923. The air force, once created as an independent entity in 1931, adopted the Astra 400 pistol too (Antaris, Astra Automatic Pistols and Astra Firearms).
53. They registered two new trademarks in 1923, Nacional and España, but they were never actually used.
54. An Astra 600 pistol was offered in Unceta y Cía catalogues in the late 1920s, but in all the books related to handguns, this model is only mentioned for Second World War production.
55. Letter by Unceta y Cía to Vicente Valero de Bernabé, Madrid, 09/02/1925, LCB n. 51, Esperanza y Unceta, GA.
56. Some of these products (e.g. pliers and counter scales) were the result of diversification projects implemented by the firm.
57. The model numbers were 720, 730, 740, 750, 760, 780, 790, 800, 801, 804, 805, 810, 811, 820, 821, 830 and 831. We have references to the use of the numbers 1000, 2000 and 3000 for shotguns as well.
58. Letter by Unceta y Cía to Norberto Arizmendi, Eibar, 15/12/1930, LCB n. 81, Unceta y Cía Fund, GA.
59. Letter by Unceta y Cía to Tomás Urizar, Eibar, 9/12/1936, LCB n. 81, Unceta y Cía Fund, GA.
60. Letter by Unceta y Cía to The Ohashi Trading Company, Kobe, 17/11/1926, LCB n. 62, Unceta y Cía Fund, GA.
61. These firms were not always ruled by the Japanese and most of them were located in Kobe. See Goñi-Mendizabal, “Imitación, innovación y apoyo institucional” and “De Esperanza y Unceta.”
62. Letter by Unceta y Cía to Alday y Cía from Eibar, 5/07/1926, LCB n. 60, Unceta y Cía Fund, Gernikazarra Archive.
63. Letter by Unceta y Cía to Ohashi Trading Company from Kobe, 30/08/1926, LCB n. 60, Unceta y Cía Fund, Gernikazarra Archive.
64. Chan, Arming the Chinese; Lary, Warlord Soldiers.
65. Since the Mauser c96 pistol was an old gun, the copy of the external shape of the gun did not pose any patent infringement. Bonifacio Echeverría did not follow the two others and only adapted one of his models to the Mauser caliber, also by adding a detachable wooden stock.
66. Mortera, Las pistolas españolas; Nelson and Musgrave, The World’s Machine Pistols.
67. Goñi-Mendizabal, “De Esperanza y Unceta.”
68. Antaris, Astra Automatic Pistols.
69. Antaris, Star Firearms.
70. The remaining sales were products sold as intermediaries (22%) and store surpluses (1.4%).
71. The other two competitors made the same decision, becoming LLAMA-Gabilondo y Cía and STAR-Bonifacio Echeverría.
72. Da Silva and Casson, “Brand Protection,” 292–293.