REMEMBERING ...THE 10TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERETTA LONDON GALLERY
IZZIE NOVEMBER
5, 2015
Last
Thursday we were invited to attend the 10th anniversary of the Beretta Gallery
London. An elegant temple of all things country, the Gallery is located in a
renovated 3 story former bank building, and sits on the corner of historic
Jermyn Street, known for its prestigious members only clubs and custom shops.
The Gallery
features Beretta’s Premium Grade firearms, sport clothing for men and women
along with shooting related accessories. Customers can also find travel luggage
and accessories, gift items, homeware, and a selection of books about the
Beretta legacy, sporting life, travel and the outdoors.
“Straddling
two continents and operating under the Beretta trademark, the Galleries
constantly refine their philosophy and strategy, while maintaining intact the
style that is signature of the Beretta brand and always operating in harmony
with the rest of the company’s distribution channels.
As for
strategies and plans for the future, the Gallery concept is to be expanded into
Europe’s leading capitals, with each store always occupying positions of
unquestioned prestige that result in a successful compromise between prime
location and high traffic. And finally the positive fallout mentioned above. A
full range of our firearms, apparel, accessories and decorative items is on
display in the Beretta Galleries of New York, Dallas, Buenos Aires, Paris and
Milan and London.” Franco Gussalli Beretta
Val
Trompia, a northern Italian river valley in the Province of Brescia, Lombardy,
has been mined for iron ore since the time of the Roman Empire. In the Middle
Ages, Val Trompia was known for its ironworks; after the Renaissance it came to
be a center for the manufacture of weapons.[4] By the mid 16th century Val
Trompia had forty ironworks, supplied by fifty mines and eight smelters. The
birthplace of Beretta is in the village of Gardone located on the banks of the
Mella river, in the middle of Val Trompia (i.e., between the upper valley and
lower valley).
The Beretta
forge was in operation from about 1500, although the first documented
transaction is a contract dated October 3, 1526 for 185 arquebus barrels, for
which the Republic of Venice was to pay 296 ducats to Maestro di Canne (master
gun-barrel maker) Bartolomeo Beretta (in Italian).The original account document
for the order of those barrels is now stored in the Archivio di Stato di
Venezia (in Italian) in Venice.[6] By the end of the 17th century, Beretta had
become the second largest gun barrel maker in Gardone.
Under the
guild system, the knowledge of gun barrel fabrication that was bequeathed to
Jacopo (1520/25 – …) from his father Bartolomeo (1490 – 1565/68) was then
passed on to his own son Giovannino (1550 – post 1577), and to his grandson
Giovan Antonio (1577 – post 1649) and so on until guilds were abolished by
Napoleon after his conquest of Venetian Republic in 1797.
Beretta has
been owned by the same family for almost five hundred years and is a
founding member of Les Henokiens, an association of bicentenary companies that
are family owned and operated.
In 1918,
the Beretta Model 1918, one of the first submachine guns in the world, was
fielded by the Italian army. Beretta manufactured rifles and pistols for the
Italian military until the 1943 Armistice between Italy and the Allied forces
during World War II. With the Wehrmacht's control of northern Italy, the
Germans seized Beretta and continued producing arms until the 1945 German
surrender in Italy.[4] In that time, the quality of the exterior finish of the
weapons diminished and was much more inferior to both the pre-war and mid-war
weapons, but their operation remained excellent. The last shipment of Type I
Rifles left Venice for Japan in a U-boat in 1942.
After World
War II, Beretta was actively involved in repairing the American M1 Garands
given to Italy by the U.S. Beretta modified the M1 into the Beretta BM-59
rifle, which is similar to the M14 battle rifle; armourers consider the BM-59
rifle to be superior to the M14 rifle in some ways, because it is more accurate
under certain conditions.
After the
war, Beretta continued to develop firearms for the Italian Army and police, as
well as the civilian market.
In the
1980s, Beretta enjoyed a renewal of popularity in North America after its
Beretta 92 pistol was selected as the service handgun for the United States
Army under the designation of "M9 pistol".
In the
1970s, Beretta also started a manufacturing plant in São Paulo, Brazil. A
contract between Beretta and the Brazilian government was signed, under which
Beretta produced Beretta 92s for the Brazilian Army until 1980. Later this
plant was sold to Taurus, who continues to manufacture the Beretta 92 under the
name of PT92 using the same tools and labour which Beretta used, without the
need for a license from Beretta, since the design is based on the original
Beretta 92, for which the patents are expired.
Beretta
acquired several domestic competitors (notably Benelli and Franchi) and some
foreign companies (notably in Finland) in the late 1980s.
The Vatican
Bank has been for years the main shareholder of the Pietro Beretta's group[ and
during the 80s it also had a relevant stakeholding in the Italian leading
tecnology group Finmeccanica
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