Why do Diana and Slavia look so much alike?

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Spiny Norman

Member
Jun 7, 2023
24
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Belgium
It struck me last week how similar Diana and Slavia airguns look. I'm wondering now if:

Diana seems to be a very old brand, from before WWII. Maybe they had factories in Czechoslovakia and after WWII the Czechs continued on their own.
Piano's, optics, shoes - many production lines were cut in two by the end of WWII and the descending Iron Curtain.

Compare for example the Diana 25 to the Slavia 618 or 624.

01-11-13-01-Diana-25-smoothbore.jpg


06-19-20-01-Slavia-618.jpg


Or maybe all these guns look alike, and I am just imaging it?
 
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JohnL57 said:
I think you answered your question. There is a lot of similarity in the older break barrel rifles to be sure. I will say the Diana looks more refined with the curved metal work on the cocking linkage.
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You mean like York (from Italy) and Haenel, for example I-53?

But then, Haenel was a DDR brand, wasn't it? So that might be the third leg of the break-up.


Or I could still be wrong. Hit me with some pictures of other manufacturers?
 
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Diana did not manufacture airguns in Czechoslovakia.- all the true 'Diana' guns were made by Mayer & Grammelspacher in Rastatt, Germany. The Slavia brand name appeared around 1960 on guns made by CZ.
After WWII, all the M&G equipment and 'Diana' name went to Millard Brothers in Scotland, who made near-clones of some pre-war models both as Diana and (for a while) Daisy.
In the early 50's airgun manufacturing was allowed in Germany. M&G restarted and sold a growing range of models, mainly branded for distributors, e.g. Gecado, Geco, Peerless, Hy-Score, Winchester, Original, RWS.

Lots of the simple break-barrel rifles look generally similar, but details of trigger systems, breech blocks, sights, etc. are different.

Don R.
 
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Spiny Norman said:
You mean like York (from Italy) and Haenel, for example I-53?

But then, Haenel was a DDR brand, wasn't it? So that might be the third leg of the break-up.


Or I could still be wrong. Hit me with some pictures of other manufacturers?
Click to expand...
Haenel is old company,my 1930th Haenel 33. In fact, Weihrauch is a continuation of the history of the Haenel Company. Read the history of the Haenel company on Google. I also have 2 Haenel 311 GDR and previously had almost the entire Haenel GDR line, except for the MLG 550, the trigger is very reminiscent of a Record. These are very accurate and high-quality rifles.Slavia is very far in quality from Henel.

DSCN7651.JPG


DSCN7473.JPG
 
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DonR said:
(...) The Slavia brand name appeared around 1960 on guns made by CZ.
(...) Lots of the simple break-barrel rifles look generally similar, but details of trigger systems, breech blocks, sights, etc. are different.

Don R.
Click to expand...
Well, to my eyes (I admit they are untrained i.e. I don't have much reference material) the breech of the Slavia looks very similar to that of the Diana.
So SOME industrial copying could still be behind it? (They did that a lot in the Warsaw Pact, though usually with electronics. There's even a small museum in Berlin devoted to it.)

I was trying to find a replacement trigger for the Slavia 618 (still looking in fact) but I sometimes saw photos which looked comparable but which weren't even Slavias at all!
 
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