Almost a Smith & Wesson

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This is what appears to be a Belgian manufactured copy of a first model DA. It came from a gentleman in upstate New York who served as an Officer of the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War and later the White Army in the Russian Revolution / Civil War. Imperial Officers were expected to purchase their own side arms – revolvers, shashkas, sabers etc. These were purchased from Officer's Supply stores in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other major cities. There are lots of surviving ads for these stores showing Smith & Wessons as well as other European designs.
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Ad showing a 2nd Model for 18 rubles. Note that it says “system Smith & Wesson” and that it is advertised as "double action"!

This revolver has been USED! It is worn way past where it would be safe to shoot. It was originally nickeled but the finish is 95% worn off with only traces remaining. It has S&W logo grips (copies?) and what is left the top strap marking has what appear to be patent dates. The top rib roll stamping isn’t straight and doesn’t appear to say “Smith & Wesson”. The cylinder cutouts are different from an original. The rear cylinder face has a Liege proof and a star over ‘X’ inspector's mark. The extractor star has a number ‘19’ mark which appears to be an assy number. This number is also found on the front face of the cylinder and on the bottom face of the latch, no number is found on the barrel. The trigger guard is the biggest giveaway that it isn't a real S&W - it bulges down below the frame where an original trigger guard would blend smoothly into the frame.
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The original finish appears to be nickel – now long gone!
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Top strap markings – hard to read.

continued ...

Almost a Smith continued
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Butt area showing the poor fit of the grip plates
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Liege proof and 19 (assy No?) Star over X mark. Note the crude checkering on the latch
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'19' on the latch.
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Trigger guard is different, it doesn’t blend into the frame.

Joe

Joe, Nice post. These old S&W copies are real reminders of times past and their study can be fascinating, especially if you have some real provenance for them as you have found on this gun. Belgian proofed S&W copies are almost endemic, especially the double actions, it seems. We have all seen 100s of them in our collecting years and some I would say would have been almost as much danger to their owners, as any target the shooter sought to hit. Quality control was not a concern! Ed.

Probably heavily used to execute prisoners. I`ve often thought the same thing about Jap. Nambu pistols. Kinda creepy to think about .

Almost, but not quite.

Do we all have one of these somewhere in the safe ? I either have (or had) a Spanish copy. It was in excellent condition much better than they are usually found but still shakes, rattles and rolls when the DA trigger is pulled. If you pull the trigger fast and hard enough it may just fly by the cylinder stop. Taking a single action pull seems to lock up OK but I wouldn't trust it.

Oh, it does have this ingenious hammer lock lever that with a little more engineering coult be quite interesting. The lever too, is anemic but functional with a very sloppy on / off throw.

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Not all Belgian copies are lower grade, the Liege area gunsmiths became FN, here is my Belgian copy of the Stevens Lord SS .22lr target pistol. Case coloring galore, ebony wood grips, with a A O Niedner Olympic chamber barrel added later. Serial #13 made by D J Counet.

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I never seen a pistol look like this one o|777gunnerz. Nice one!

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