My 2 cents worth: As long as I can remember, collectors and dealers have sought boxes and or replacement boxes for certain guns that were of a higher value but had no box. The first I remember was the mass production of the craft / kraft (which is the correct spelling) boxes for the Colt 1911s, which is a certain type press-board covered and adhered with an overlay of craft / kraft paper. I can remember the boxes being offered at least 40 years ago.
For the major part of my life I restored vintage automobiles and in doing so met many owners of classic automobiles that appreciated fine work, thereafter asking me to restore interior wood-working on older yachts (e.g. Hatteras, etc.)
In doing so, at times, certain sections of certain types of wood or gauge sheet metal had to be recreated to match the original which was no longer in production. Geeeze, Jay Leno keeps a master craftsman, in house, to roll out new fenders from flat sheet metal to hand and machine roll and bend this metal to specific 1920s 1930s automobiles.
Most of the items I actually re-created were Rolls-Royce and Bentley interior wood dash trim panels, since there was either NO replacement available from Rolls Royce or the cost was so prohibitive, it was more cost effective to have the existing wood "restored" which included full or partial hand manufactured and sculpted, matching panels.
For the past 3 or 4 years there have been a few sellers offering Colt label reproductions, then boxes. Over the years they seem to keep getting better and better quality. If offered a reproduction part or component of ANYTHING ... that item being offered and accepted as reproduction or restorative part ... what's the crime ? Aren't there quite a few skilled craftsman that restore original boxes ?
After you purchase a reproduction / restoration quality box or labels it is up to YOU .... when or if you again sell that box, with or without the correct gun inside it, to disclose the box is not "the" box the gun left the factory in, but rather an artfully manufactured restorative quality, reproduction box.
HOW long have a hand full of sellers offered re-printed S&W box end labels (the type that penned in model and serial number are place) ? I have been offered S&W's in boxes with replacement labels from collectors i would have never thought would subscribe to the practice and ... in my humble opinion ... if the label wasn't a poor copy but a more artfully produced exact recreation of the actual S&W label, (with either the watermark and / or whatever they did to get a translucent, holographic type appearing, S&W emblem as the later S&W labels had) I might try a few myself.
I have bought and sold S&Ws that were not in "the" box they left S&W in but rather the correct type and vintage genuine S&W box. Heck, we all have at one time or another. We KNOW it's not "the" box but rather either a similar or correct vintage and model type. Boxes, alone, are a huge collecting interest.
Face it, everyone would prefer to have "the" original box. If not the original then a reproduction or restorative quality might be okay if you subscribe to the practice, even if for only a display item ... but .... it's impossible to find "the" exact box, an artfully reproduced restorative copy of the original box might be OK ... only IF (and I repeat ONLY IF) there is no intended to deceive nor false witness given to insinuate that the restorative quality box is being represented as "the" original box .... what is the harm ?
HOWEVER .... (big HOWEVER here) .... if someone or anyone is doing this deceitfully and mis-representing the product, then that would be (at minimum) DECEITFUL,if not outright fraudulent.
But SERIOUSLY .... who, in their right x&*$#= mind, pays a mere pittance of $165.00 for a Python (or other Colt / SW rare box with all the paperwork), with the correct computer or hand generated, vintage correct, serial numberl and model number correct label created for you (bar codes and all) and even remotely think it is original ?
Face it, his Colt boxes look pretty darn good. I haven't seen any of his S&W offerings, though.
Years back, if I recall correctly, a member researched (very well as it seems) the company that produced the original Gutta-Percha S&W pistol boxes ... and ... IIRC reproduced some gutta-percha or gutta-perhca-like boxes with the molds ? What was the harm if represented for sale of what it truly is ?
In parting, if the box is not represented as "the original" box the gun came in, and the buyer realizes (if nothing more than by the price alone) it is an artfully recreated REPLACEMENT box, then, no harm, no foul, i think.
PS: I have a few original, vintage, boxes of the 1920s to 1950s that I suspicious that the machine printed label may have been run off on a copier on similar paper and affixed with similar type commercial adhesive. Then again, S&W would cross off a label that was 6' and overwite 4", or stamp the work TARGET on the end label and so many other idiosyncratic on S&W boxes that I accept as 100% authentic.
nly 30 years ago having a presentation case added only $50.00 to what you got for it. No one even asked if you had the box.
