Edgar William Brandt was a French ironworker and prolific weapons designer. In 1901 he set up a small workshop at 76 rue Michel-Ange in the 16th arrondissement in Paris, where he began designing, silversmithing, and forging small items such as jewelry, crosses, and brooches. His business began to take off with special commissions such as the door of the French Embassy in Brussels, the Escalier Mollien stairs in the Louvre, and the stair and balcony railing for the Grand Theatre Municipal de Nancy.

The Brandt mle 27/31 mortar was a regulation weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was a refinement of the Stokes mortar. The Brandt mortar was highly influential, being licensed built or copied by numerous countries.