Recently acquired 38 S&W CTGE , 5 shot,31/2in, top break Revolver. ser#408106, has Harrington and Richardson on top of barrel. I would appreciate any history or value or any info on this revolver.

Well welcome to the forms from the Wiregrass! Sounds like you have a Harrington and Richardson top break copy of a Smith & Wesson. It happens to chamber the 38 Smith & Wesson cartridge.

Guy

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Harrington and Richardson is an old competitor of S&W so our serial number guru's may not be able to help with a date of shipping.

But there are world class experts on all manner of fire arms that frequent this forum so I would expect some one can help you here.

A picture or two would go a long ways if you could post some?

Welcome to the forum.

As others have stated, your gun is not a S&W and only shoots a cartridge that contains the terminology. Since it is marked Harrington & Richardson, they manufactured the gun The company was formed in 1871 and had a shop in Worcester, MA IIRC.

If you don't get information here regarding value, try looking on one of the online gun sites like Gun Broker. By searching similar guns in their sold listings, you can get a fair idea of what your gun might bring. The guns for sale have not received a final price and could mislead you into a false price range. One can ask anything but you are more interested in what they actually received. Good luck.

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James Redfield
LM #497

There are multiple models of top break H&R revolvers in caliber .38S&W, as they made many 1,000s of these revolvers over the years. If you could post pictures of the gun, from all angles, perhaps we could provide an approximate manufacturing date. Ed.

I going to jump in and guess by the serial number, your Harrington & Richardson top break would be from around 1915-1920 range. Earlier H&R top breaks didn't include the cartridge markings on the side of the barrel. H&R started to include that information to designate that it was safe to shoot the then new smokeless powder. Earlier ones without the cartridge designation are strictly black powder models.

Also, the serial number appears in a few other places as well on the pistol. The back of the cylinder, the underside of the T-shaped barrel release latch and the underside of the top strap all should have the same serial number that's on the butt of the pistol. Sometimes the back of the ejector star has 2 of the serial numbers listed as well.

Value of these is not great. If it's in perfect mechanical shape and h had most of the original finish, maybe $275 tops. With a lot of finish missing, maybe $100.

H&R pistols were a lot less expensive to purchase in their day. If a new S&W sold for say $11.00 in 1910, an H&R of the similar design would be around $4.

I hope this helps some what. As others have said, a picture would be very helpful!

H&R made what could be called "value priced" revolvers, but that should not imply that they were shoddy products. They fitted the needs of most customers of modest means. H&R produced huge quantities of them from the late 19th century until fairly recently (and also long guns). There is little collector interest in H&R revolvers unless they are in very high condition, and values are typically somewhat below similar condition S&Ws and Colts. But some I have seem recently are not marked at giveaway prices.