I suspect it may have been one of the known Savage .25 forms. Perhaps an eager Savage sales department getting the cart ahead of the horse just as WWI landed on Europe. Timing about right… within months of first French Contract order.

Would take some tall explaining to offer a product for sale that a company did not offer, even in Europe.

"Too often people do not recognize Opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like Work." Thomas Alva Edison