http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Browning
Quote:
On November 26, 1926, while working on a self-loading pistol design for FN in Liege, he died of heart failure in the office of his son Val. The 9 mm self-loading pistol he was working on when he died was eventually completed in 1935, by Belgian designer Dieudonne Saive. Released as the Fabrique Nationale GP35, it was more popularly known as the Browning Hi-Power. The Superposed shotgun was completed by his son Val A. Browning
Until his death, Browning designed weapons for Colt, Remington, his own company and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium. In 1977, FN acquired the Browning Arms Company which had been established in 1927, the year after Browning's death.
|
OK, So I make mistakes...
JMB died in his son Val's office at FN in Liege while working on the Hi-Power.
FN named the gun the GP35 but it became better known as the Browning Hi-Power. My point in my previous message being that it was named after the man, not the company. The "Hi-Power" name apparently came from the GP being called the Grande Puissance (High Power) in France.
FN's GP35 is the original version of the Hi-Power and they've certainly sold plenty marked as "Browning." The final design was completed by Dieudonne Saive, for FN, nine years after JMB died.
JMB owned John Browning Guns. John Browning guns sold primarily gun designs, not so much guns. Interestingly, Winchester bought many of Browning's designs for no purpose other than to keep other companies from aquiring them. Winchester only actually produced around 25% of the Browning designs it owned. Browning Arms was formed in 1927, the year after his death. In 1935, Val left Belgium and returned to Utah (the Brownings were Mormons) to become president of Browning Arms.
Sorry for any mis-information I provided earlier!
Tom