A Berns Martin in the U.K.

[ordnanceguy]

This very handsome example of a carved Berns Martin shoulder holster now resides at the Royal Armouries in the U.K. I cannot confirm that Bond, James Bond, once used it.



It is holding a pooch of a Smith, a highly modified M&P revolver cut down, Fitzed and generally tarted up. Just forget the revolver and try to stay focused on the holster. No telling what happened to the shoulder strap.



You just never know where those Berns Martins will show up.

 

[crazyphil]

Beautiful carving. Wonder who did it?

 

[rednichols]

This very handsome example of a carved Berns Martin shoulder holster now resides at the Royal Armouries in the U.K. I cannot confirm that Bond, James Bond, once used it.



It is holding a pooch of a Smith, a highly modified .38-200 British Service Revolver cut down, Fitzed and generally tarted up. Just forget the revolver and try to stay focused on the holster. No telling what happened to the shoulder strap.



You just never know where those Berns Martins will show up.

I'd encourage you to have a closer look at your source for more detailed information from it, that's Boothroyd's own revolver and his holster, too. I've images of all three (him, his revolver, his holster). So it will be a Calhoun City holster, the revolver a 3" .38 Spl. Both were used for the original cover for From Russia with Love, the book that set up the 'fail' of the Beretta that enabled Fleming (who was 'M') to force the Walther and the Berns-Martin on Bond in Dr. No, which out of sequence became the first Bond film and Russia the second.

I'm having no luck with uploads to this Forum today; but the cylinder will be nickel plated. In the meantime notice the gunsmith's hallmarks between the cylinder notches that are also on Boothroyd's; as well as the Fitzing, the jewelling, the grips; and the holster appeared in a British newspaper and has identical carving.

What good fun! Thanks to the OP for posting this new info .

 

[ordnanceguy]

You are quite right, Red. That is indeed Boothroyd's revolver although the Royal Armouries site did not identify it as such.



It is serialed 757529. It was shipped from the factory in 1941. It has been heavily modified with the Fitz-style trigger guard treatment, a cut-down barrel, front and rear target sights installed, nickeled cylinder, the machine turned trigger and hammer, and a square butt frame that has been reduced to a modified round butt style. One could argue that it barely qualifies as a S&W now. As something of a purist when it comes to Smith & Wessons, my sensibilities were overwhelmed by all of the mods, so I ignored them and the revolver. The B-M holster is the star.

The gun has lasting fame, as you pointed out, due to its selection to illustrate the cover of Fleming's "From Russia With Love".

 

[rednichols]

Very good! I did locate the site and had a look at the entries; both items appear to be in USA. Curious when the Armouries are in London, and Boothroyd was British, and neither of the items were actually used by the fictional character, who was also British. Both revolver and holster are American though!

I've a copy of Boothroyd's article if you don't already have a copy and would like one. There he discloses the revolver is in the ever-popular .380-200 (which is the .38 S&W), that the barrel is 2-3/4" and that Jack Martin made the holster especially for him. He had .38 Specials from the war but felt the long action of the .38 was his best choice; which goes some way to explain why he was so impressed that S&W had fitted the Special into the little Centennial in aluminium for Bond).



And now we know that this image, which is from the Sunday Times article that was a duplicate of the Sports Illustrated article, is Boothroyd's own holster with his M&P in it -- but the revolver's image altered to look like the Centennial. I knew the image was altered but not the full extent of it until now; even the smooth grips and semi-round butt are Boothroyd's (pistol not the man).



Boothroyd appears to have gathered all his info from which to advise Fleming in '56, from a 1954 book chapter by Charlie Askins. So when Boothroyd read Dr. No for the first time and spotted the problem, he thought Fleming should cure the problem by issuing Bond a Threepersons (Askins also carried on about the Threepersons in that chapter). Bloody oath, still with the revolver when the problem was that the Walther was the incurable part. Fleming was quite brusque in his response and they exchanged no more letters on the topic.

Thanks so much for the info about serial number and build date. I fill my chronology with little tidbits like that . The holster itself would be Calhoun City for sure.