Further Research After S&W Letter

[rayj101]

Hi All, As posted earlier, I got my S&W letter pertaining to my Model one Safety Hammerless .32. It was shipped to E. K. Tryon Co. in Philadelphia, PA. January 1, 1892, a Friday. Does the research stop here? Anyone have any luck going beyond the initial distributor? Tryon survived into the 1950's as far as I know at this time. Anyway what are the odds for pursuing info beyond this point? Curious but also willing to try more research. I guess what I'm really asking is if you guys have any successes or tips. Regards, Ray

 

[rayj101]

Hi All, As posted earlier, I got my S&W letter pertaining to my Model one Safety Hammerless .32. It was shipped to E. K. Tryon Co. in Philadelphia, PA. January 1, 1892, a Friday. Does the research stop here? Anyone have any luck going beyond the initial distributor? Tryon survived into the 1950's as far as I know at this time. Anyway what are the odds for pursuing info beyond this point? Curious but also willing to try more research. I guess what I'm really asking is if you guys have any successes or tips. Regards, Ray

 

[opoefc]

Rayj, You're pretty much at a dead end for a .32 Safety shipped in 1892 to Tyron, as there's no known records surviving from that distributor for a gun that old. Depending on where you got the gun, you might be able to back track it's ownership by contacting the seller to see where they got the gun, etc. but often it was just a gun show purchase or auction sale with no foot prints of it's history available. A .32 safety was not the type of handgun that a famous target shooter would have bought, so chances are the original owner bought it for personal protection in his household, etc. That was the focus of the marketing ads for Safety Hammerless guns by S&W.

 

[rayj101]

Thanks opoefc, Kinda what I figured. Of course there may be someone with the complete records who is reading this. The eternal optimist resides in me. LOL. Regards, Ray

 

[opoefc]

rayj, Eternal optimism is what keeps all us collectors going! To me, researching a gun's past is more fun that finding the gun, and I have been lucky enough to occasionally srike gold, so to speak, thru geneology records or backtracking owners, etc. Tryon was a major sporting goods dealer for over a century and it would be like trying to find where Wal Mart sold a loaf of bread in 1980. There are publications and articles on Tryon's history, but not records of individual sales, other than S&W shipping records that cover 1,000s of guns purchased by Tryon from S&W. We take shipping records and factory letters for granted, but actually S&W collectors are the lucky few that have this source at a reasonable cost. Ed.