22/32 First Production Run Revolver

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Hello, joined here a while back, but haven't posted here until now. I recently won this on GunBroker; it was listed as having been owned by a member here who passed on last year. There was no S&W letter with it as many others of those attributed to him had; but messaging JSR III privately, he told me that the "gun shipped on 8/31/1911 to a W.L. Lucas, no address shown." The gun is in good condition, although they did manage to make sure that some bluing lost on the cylinder didn't appear in the photos, they used in their GB ad. Curious to hear your impressions, this is now the oldest of my four S&W revolvers. I'm including two pictures (hopefully) of it with my 1950 K-22. It has 908 on the left stock and the stocks have the correct serial number inside.
 

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Welcome from Virginia

Welcome from Virginia!

Very nice 1st post. If the number 908 is on the bottom of the left grip, and if the serial number is within a certain range (138226 to 139275) then it "sounds like" it might be a genuine Bekeart model, however I think most collectors only recognize those that actually shipped to Phil Bekeart as being genuine. There are other levels of Bekeart-Pattern and it could be that you have a "level 2" which was the first year production run, with a number (from 1 to 3000) stamped in the bottom of the grips but did not ship to Phil Bekeart.

Seems like all levels of Bekeart's command a premium in today's market of course dependent upon condition but looks like you got a nice one. Pics of the 908 on grip would be nice, and maybe you want to send for a Factory Letter of Authenticity which would be then issued in your name establishing provenance for you.

Mine is NOT a Bekeart (any level) yet still in very nice condition and came to me with original box, paperworks, cleaning rod still wrapped in rice paper, all over 100+ years old. Mine shipped on September 20, 1915.

Again...welcome to the Forum and enjoy that nice 22/32 HFT. Do you intend to shoot it at all?
 

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Thanks for your reply, from SW WA. I must say I'm jealous of your pistol; 107 years old and looks new and with its box! Although the condition of mine is such that an occasional trip to the range is definitely in the cards. Mine's serial number does indeed fall in the range of first production, 139198.I'm including four photos that I hope show well, I've never really embraced digital photography, taking only one photography class back in 1970.
For some reason the pics are being rotated when I upload them, I tried to rotate them and upload them a second time with no success, sorry.
 

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Very nice 1st post. If the number 908 is on the bottom of the left grip, and if the serial number is within a certain range (138226 to 139275) then it "sounds like" it might be a genuine Bekeart model, however I think most collectors only recognize those that actually shipped to Phil Bekeart as being genuine. There are other levels of Bekeart-Pattern and it could be that you have a "level 2" which was the first year production run, with a number (from 1 to 3000) stamped in the bottom of the grips but did not ship to Phil Bekeart.
Click to expand...

OK, just to clarify, those stamped on the bottom of the left stock panel with a number believed to be between 1 and 2,590 did not all ship in the first year, 1911. The first run of 1,050 shipped between 6-7-1911 and 10-13-1911. Of those, Bekeart only received 294.

The second 1,050 run is in the 160,XXX to 165,XXX serial blocks and are believed to have shipped from around May of 1912 to January of 1913. It is believed that these would have stock imprint numbers from 1,051 to 2,100.

The third block is believed to be the 490 consecutively serial numbered guns that went to M.W. Robinson in 5 shipments in January, February and March of 1914. It is believed that these guns have stock imprint numbers between 2,101 and 2,590.

There are Bekeart shipped guns in runs 1 and 2 but none in the third run that went exclusively to Robinson.

Again, other than the first run, which was pulled from the S&W factory records, the rest is speculation based on data recorded in my database. With over 2,000 entries and a study history covering around 20 years, I feel fairly confident about my conclusions.
 
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