Well, it's probably not unusual; it's more likely I'm just unfamiliar with this type of box in a postwar context.

I recently acquired a nice 1955 Pre-28 from forum member wdhdoc. Part of the package was the original maroon colored box, which seems kind of "plain wrap" to me compared to the gold picture boxes also used at the time.

This one has no printed interior, no reinforced corners, and the identification consists of a label pasted on one end. The faded label is difficult to read but consists of three lines: on top we see SMITH & WESSON; the second line says HIGHWAY PATROLMAN; the third line is mostly illegible, but the last word is BLUED; I'm guessing the part of the third line I can't read originally said something like 6-INCH. The gun's serial number is written in pencil on the bottom of the box.

As I read SCSW, this kind of box was used from the early postwar period until about 1954, but I sense it was less commonly used than the gold boxes. Is it possible these simpler boxes were used to ship revolvers that were part of agency orders, while the gold boxes went to commercial distributors?

External dimensions of top: 4-5/8" x 13-1/8" x 1-3/4".











This was what came inside it:




I'd appreciate any info anyone can offer about how often these boxes are encountered and what models were shipped in them. Obviously N-frames were subject to this kind of boxing. This gun shipped in May of 1955. I think some Heavy Duty and Outdoorsman units shipped in boxes like this in the immediate postwar period. I'm just surprised to see them still in use in the mid-1950s.

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David Wilson

Might have looked like this label.
Think about what gold boxes you have ever seen for N frames. I don't think too many models were packaged that way (in gold boxes).
Ed

Yes, that would be the label. Thank you.

I have three boxed non-model-marked N-frames from the postwar years, and they are all in gold picture boxes --a transitional Heavy Duty, an Outdoorsman (Pre-23) and a .357 Magnum (Pre-27). Exposure to this variety is what made me sort of stop in my tracks when I saw this maroon box and consider it as a possible anomaly.

I thought I had seen a photo of a gold picture box for a Highway Patrolman on this forum, but now I can't find it. I could be misremembering. I did find photos of first-year HPs with a black box with metal reinforced corners.

I guess the message is that there is greater box variety for HPs than I thought there was, but that variety does not include the box I expected to be dominant. Live and learn.

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David Wilson

S&W would use "boxes on hand" to ship their guns. It was their practice to never throw anything away that could be used and these boxes are further proof of that.

Bill

David,

Here is a box that appears to be similar to yours except that it has the bilingual instructions printed in the lid. (It has the proper gun, shown in the second picture, in it now but they didn't ship together.) I am told by a "usually reliable source" that it is believed that they were used by the factory to return repaired guns and the date which is stamped in mine is the date that the repaired gun was returned. The box would have been out of style at the time of that date but it's another example of the factory using whatever was on hand. The grease pencil number on the label of mine is for a gun with a different barrel length and caliber than the label so that lends credibility to the theory of a "returned gun" box.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. And I think you just answered another question for me. I have Model 53 with a date stamp inside the box that is subsequent to the gun's ship date as determined by letter. I wondered if that was a date stamped by a second owner when the gun traded hands, but since the gun now has a .22 LR cylinder that it did not have when it shipped, I bet that is the date the gun went back to the factory to have the extra cylinder fitted. I imagine in this instance the original box was used to ship both ways.

I also have a ghost memory of a date stamp in another box I have. I need to go rummaging in the collection and see what that one was.

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David Wilson

FYI-
There were never any gold boxes for an HP.

Perhaps S&W used these plain maroon boxes till the early blue ones showed up. perhaps they were in no great rush to get a blue printed box with crimped corners till they could see if the new model would sell. Or, perhaps they were in no big hurry to buy the more expensive boxes for what was born as an "economy" model.

And, Yes- date stamps inside the lid of a box show it was used as a service dept return box. I have seen many gold K-32 boxes used as return boxes, and we all know that gold K-32 boxes must number in the 1000's.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett