JP Sauer scope

[Themauserkid]

I believe I just stumbled onto a JP Sauer scope this morning. Their proprietary mounts were of the SEM style but with single claws instead of dual, and see through rings. This style is pictured on page 215 of Jim Cate’s book, as well as an example in the homepage gallery here. The only difference being, those are mounted on Mausers, and the one I just bought appears to be off of a double rifle or similar due to the ring spacing. I assume Sauer held a patent for these rings and if so what might the number be? The scope is a CP Goerz which is a maker that seems to be continuously paired with Sauer in catalogs, so all things considered I feel fairly confident that this is very likely an optic off of an early Sauer. I’ll take some photographs when it arrives if there is any interest. Regards,
Clay

[Themauserkid]

Determining the relative age of the scope would be great to dating this assembly. I believe this should be an early 1900’s timeframe.

[Axel E]

The C.p.Goerz „Certar“ 4.5 x scope was first advertised in 1907. Goerz scope production ended when the company was taken over by Zeiss in 1926. I agree, your scope appears to be of pre-WW1 date. I doubt a Sauer &Sohn DRP = patent for those inline claw mounts ever existed. If there was a DRGM = registered and protected design, we can not identify it any more. A DRGM expired after 6 years maximum and the text and drawings were trashed soon after. Even if we find a DRGM number assigned to S&S, we would have only a heading like “scope mount”, but no hint to what a design was protected. As scope mounts were most often made by specialist outworking shops in Suhl and were bought in by the gunmakers, these mounts may have been no S&S design at all, but just used by them most often. These mounts with a single claw are merely a step in the evolution of the Suhl type claw mounts. Though front rings with two claws became very much standard by 1914, there was a wild variation of fastening the rear ring with one or two, square or round pegs, locked to the base by slides, levers or clamps, the locking elements mounted in the base or in the ring, up to WW2.