Age of S & W revolver

[DanielHF1943]

I'm trying to help a friend identify a revolver left to her by the recent death of her husband.

From previous research, it appears to be a Smith & Wesson "New Departure" with "Lemon Squeezy" safety. It is a top-break 38 caliber, 5-cyl with no visible hammer. On top of the 6" barrel are three patent dates, which appear to be Oct 2 1883 Aug 4 1885 and April 9 1888. The serial number on the butt appears to be 187530.

Any idea when this revolver was manufactured?

 

[murphydog]

Welcome! This is a .38 Safety Hammerless 4th model, likely from about 1904 or '05. It was also called the New Departure by the factory; it was nicknamed the "Lemon Squeezer" but not officially. It's an easy peasy gun to ID . Hope this is helpful.

 

[Jim Watson]

Metal finish is not very good, but the hard rubber grips look nice.
A 6" barrel is rather uncommon on what most of us think of as a pocket pistol.

 

[DanielHF1943]

Thanks to both Jim and Alan for this information. The revolver is older than I had guessed.
The next obvious question is: Does it have any value? If so, approximately how much?

 

[glowe]

I picked up a 1906 6" 38 Safety last year for $130 and am still looking for parts to get it back to working condition. Condition looks to be similar to yours. Even though a 6" is uncommon, this model exceeded a half-million produced, so one of the lowest valued S&W models out there today.

 

[DanielHF1943]

Thanks, Glowe

Gary,
I appreciate your reply. My weapon may be in condition to fire, as is. It came with a box of ammo that had about 1/3 left unfired, and also had most of the empties. Everything appears to be very tight.