And then there are those within the lunatic fringe of the collector community whose likes and dislikes have next to nothing to do with the object, the gun in this case, but with the perceived philosophies and/or attitudes of the management of the company that made them.

In the case of S&W, there are those who will tell you the philosophy held by the early management of the company went something along these lines: We will be successful if we build the best possible products for the price. They will tell you that philosophy prevailed throughout the period ending with the advent of the four screw K and N frame products-----late 1950's, thereabouts, when the philosophy began to change to: We will be successful if we build our products at the lowest possible cost. They will go on to tell you if it wasn't then, it most certainly was when the 3 screw versions of these items came to be. Needless to say, the timeline of this sort of thing can be argued, and I for instance believe a case could be made the change in philosophy came about with the demise of the Triple Lock. I suspect that position would find favor with relatively few because of all the really spiffy guns produced between 1915 and the later 1950's---never mind they were double locks instead of triple.

Then there's the matter of the company's attitude toward their customer----customer oriented or self oriented. You can work your own timeline for that.

And now, having introduced these intangible variables, I'll leave it to you to decide how these intangibles impact the tangibles made from steel and walnut----and their comparative values----if you care enough to do so. As for me, maybe a little TV----start a book---a little nap wouldn't hurt.

Ralph Tremaine