SABATTI S.P.A.

The history of firearms in Val Trompia is one with the history of the local people who with tireless energy, skillful creativity and remarkable ingenuity have manufactured firearms through good times and bad.

Both the documents found in Italian and European archives and the wealth of arms jealously preserved in the world's great museums testify to the existence of firearm manufacture in Val Trompia for centuries. Further, they reveal the inventive and highly refined technology achieved by the craftsmen of this valley. The Sabatti family has always played a significant role in firearm manufacture: its members, at one time or an other, have excelled in many of its different crafts. For example, in the early years of the 18th century, the arquebusier Lodovico Sabatti (1674-1745), working in Gardone Valtrompia, was an excellent flint-lock pistols designer and also a well-known barrel-maker. Later, Giuseppe Sabatti (active in Gardone Valtrompia between 1760 and 1815) was regarded as the manufacturer of remarkable arquebuses. To underline the diversity of the activities carried out by the Sabatti family, it is interesting to note that in the first half of the 19th century, another Giuseppe Sabatti was considered one of the best barrel welders who produced pieces in "very fine true Damascus" steel.

Through the years, the family concentrated in perfecting the manufacture of flint locks. Indeed, when - in 1848 - the provisional government of Brescia requested from the craftsmen of Magno Valtrompia "not [their] blood but their craftsmanship for the Nation's defense", 4 out of the 10 lock manufacturers established in the area were Sabattis. In the same period, Domenico Sabatti was a specialized barrel maker and Giovanni Sabatti, working between 1840 and 1860, a well-known arquebus manufacturer. The various branches of the Sabatti family that have continued this activity without interruption up to the present day - on their own or in partnership with others - are very well-known. Immediately after world War II (1946), Antonio Sabatti in partnership with Giuseppe Tanfoglio gave a renewed impetus to the production of shotgun parts, once again with a preference for lock manufacture. Around 1956, they started the production of automatic pistols for personal defense; four years later, the company was split, leaving each partner with a different branch of activity. The sons of Antonio Sabatti in 1960 founded a new company for the production of shotguns. Since then, the company has grown up and now Sabatti is probably one of the most known brand in the shotgun business. Today, three of the grandsons of Antonio Sabatti: Emanuele, Antonio and Marco, continue to manufacture hunting and sporting shotguns with the same success that their family enjoyed in the past, constantly improving them to meet the evolving needs of hunters and shooters throughout the world.