mawkie
C&R Whisperer
-Oh the things you find digging away in the dusty corners of the auction world on the 'net. The first of these was an FN 1922 that caught my eye because of a lack of inspector marks. No Belgian or German! SN places it in a very tiny sliver of time between the German overlords fleeing the Allied advance into the Liege area and the Belgian inspectors coming back to the FN proof house (Belgian staff had evacuated the FN proof house in '40 and took their dies with them). Pistols were assembled from C suffix German parts. Anthony Vanderlinden has listed seven observed serial numbers for C suffix post liberation pistols. This example is not one of them, so the observed total gets bumped to eight.
-Condition is very good with a rare brown bakelite brown grip. Sadly the right grip is a reproduction. But I'm more than happy to take it as it is so rare to find in any condition. Of course the cherry on top was the hammer price that had it delivered to me below $500. Christmas comes early!
-The other rare gem is a very early Star 1908 chambered in .25 ACP. I had never seen one of these outside of the Antaris Star reference book. A deep search online came up with 2 examples sold in Europe in the last decade. Both of those were in rough condition, the opposite of this one. I have never seen a Star pistol with such a beautiful, deep high polish finish. Stupid difficult to photograph, just like early Colt pistols. The only blemish is a small chip out of the right grip. The SN is 3 digits, just above 500. A beautiful little gem. Cost was a bit more than the FN but not enough to dissuade me because I guarantee I'll never see another 1908 in my lifetime. Let alone in this pristine condition. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. This one is just that hard to shoot under artificial lighting.
-Condition is very good with a rare brown bakelite brown grip. Sadly the right grip is a reproduction. But I'm more than happy to take it as it is so rare to find in any condition. Of course the cherry on top was the hammer price that had it delivered to me below $500. Christmas comes early!
-The other rare gem is a very early Star 1908 chambered in .25 ACP. I had never seen one of these outside of the Antaris Star reference book. A deep search online came up with 2 examples sold in Europe in the last decade. Both of those were in rough condition, the opposite of this one. I have never seen a Star pistol with such a beautiful, deep high polish finish. Stupid difficult to photograph, just like early Colt pistols. The only blemish is a small chip out of the right grip. The SN is 3 digits, just above 500. A beautiful little gem. Cost was a bit more than the FN but not enough to dissuade me because I guarantee I'll never see another 1908 in my lifetime. Let alone in this pristine condition. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. This one is just that hard to shoot under artificial lighting.
