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Old 03-25-2018, 05:53 PM
first-model first-model is offline
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Originally Posted by jdogrulz View Post
I would really like to say thank you again to everyone for the warm welcome, and all of this really great info coming in. I am learning a lot here. 30+ Years in weapons and I am sorry to say that I really never had to think about this model so deep before and never had to ask these questions before. But it is the history that makes all of this so cool and why I got into antiques in the first place as a young boy.
A lot of people overlook the Model 1. I have a book from the 1950's called "Suicide Specials," which chronicles a lot of these small "junk" pocket guns. The Model 1 is very much included in this book, which speaks to its status as a "junk gun" when most collectors were lusting after Colts and (to a lesser degree) larger caliber Smith & Wessons. Intense interest in the Model 1 is a more modern phenomenon, and I still don't think it gets the respect that it deserves.

It's worth mentioning that the Model 1 was the gun that gave birth to modern mass-production at Smith & Wesson. The much rarer Model 1, 1st Issue guns (the first ~11,000 produced) were made on the second floor of a rented stove shop, largely by contractors and contract laborers. When the Model 1 really started to take off, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson saved enough capital to build the Stockbridge Street factory, which was purpose-built for gun manufacturing. The labor system of "putting out" (or contracting) continued for some time, but operations were much more consolidated. This was when we also saw the rise of managers in the company -- another phenomenon that puts Smith & Wesson on the vanguard of modern business practices.

A collection of Model 1's (which would include a 1st Issue, a 2nd Issue and a 3rd Issue) is a walk through the history of American enterprise unlike any other gun from the company's history.

Mike
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