1917 4 digit S/N with Accessories

[H Richard]

Went to a friends house for our Friday after work drinks. A group has been meeting together for over 20 years at the one bachelor's house, even though several of us are now retired, 4:30 Fri. it meeting time. We are all gunners, and that is the usual topic of conversation. The home owner is a collector of military memorabilia and has dozens of (correct) WW1 and WW2 uniforms with all patch's ranks, hats, etc. Well tonight he has a WW1 web belt with a WW1 first aid kit, and a 3 tier half moon ammo pouch (with 18 rounds of WW2 EC 43 headstamp steel case ammo) and a leather flap holster marked (?)HNK 1912 or MNK 1912. In the holster is a 95% 1917 with just a smidgen of holster wear on the muzzle and cylinder high spots and one freckle on the right side frame. It has the grooved hammer, and concave (early) grips that are mint and appear almost too reddish to be walnut. The 1917 is a S/N 990X, and just beautiful. Unfortunately I had no camera with me. The ammo pouch was marked R H Long 1918 the first aid pouch (full) was marked Mills 1918. The gun's proof stamp was a circle with an overlaid HS in the circle. (as well as both our old eye's could tell). All stamping was crisp. Action was like a bank vault and the BC gap was so tight could hardly see any light through it. I sincerely doubt if the gun has had more than a box of ammo through it. We pulled the grips and could make out a hint of pencil mark, but couldn't read it but the grips fit so perfect they have to be original.

I know without pictures you can't tell, but would anyone venture a guess on the value of this package? I will try and remember to take a camera, but will be a couple weeks as he will be out of town. I'm estimating the gun at $1200 to $1400, and the package at $1500+

 

[Muley Gil]

Sounds about right to me.

 

[JSR III]

I agree. The R H Long pouch is very neat. The company based in Framingham, MA was originally a shoe manufacturer. Later they produced canvas and leather goods for the war effort and then a line of automobiles. The company still exists today and is now a Cadillac dealership in Southboro, MA. Here is an
excerpt from the Framingham historical society.

In 1901, Richard H. Long of Weymouth bought a four-story empty factory building on the corner of Waverley and Mellen streets because he needed more space to accommodate his shoe manufacturing business.
That space sufficed for eight years when Long built an even bigger factory on the north side of the railroad tracks near Fountain Street. This was just the beginning of R.H. Long's career in Framingham.

During World War I, Long retooled his factories to manufacture leather products for the army. To accommodate the extra workers needed, he bought the Kendall Hotel. He was involved in philanthropic works and Massachusetts Democratic Party politics. He established the Boston Telegraph newspaper, which he used to win the Democratic nomination for governor in 1918. Calvin Coolidge carried the day but Long moved right onto to his next enterprise. He was meant to manufacture automobiles!

First, he bought the Bela Body Company and moved it to Framingham. They manufactured car bodies for the Franklin Motor Company. Later that factory would become part of the Dennison complex. The building on Fountain Street was retooled again; this time for automobile production. The Bay State Automobile was born there in 1922. Approximately 3,000 cars, give or take 500 were produced between 1922 and 1926. There were two models, a six and an eight cylinder in a variety of body styles. Prices ranged from $1,800 to $2,500. But the automobile industry required deep pockets and in 1924, to stay afloat, Long began sharing his plant with the Luxor Cab Manufacturing Company. That company bought out Long's operation in 1925. Within another two years, they too were forced to close.

By 1927, the irrepressible Mr. Long had reorganized his remaining shoe business on Mellen Street as the R.H. Long Motor Sales Company with a franchise to sell Cadillacs and Pontiacs. This business remained in Framingham for decades. Only in recent years did the dealership relocate to Southboro.

The other chapter in automobile manufacturing in Framingham's history began in the late forties. To meet the demand for automobiles following World War II, General Motors Corporation decided to build a plant on 176 acres in South Framingham. The parcel included the Framingham Airport, so that was the end of that enterprise. During its peak, the plant employed 3,500 people working in two shifts. By the time the plant was closed permanently in 1987, more than four million Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Buicks and Chevrolets had been assembled there. Today the Adesa Corporation uses the old GM site on Western Avenue for their automobile auction and remarketing business.

Of recent interest, a local Ashland, MA man was arrested at the 4 story building built by R.H. Long that is now used by various businesses as well as a storage facility. The man, a suspected home grown terrorist was planning to fill model airplanes with explosives and attack the Pentagon and Whitehouse.