The bottom of my FN 1922 rabbit hole: German Occupation Commercial Variant

[mawkie]

-I realize this thread won't be of much interest to most of you here but wanted to share something with somd_mustangs and kh195 that I think they might find worth perusing. I found this rare German Occupation built commercial FN1922 while waiting to bid on the Winchester 54 in my earlier thread. Another win for using spare time to good effect! I had taken a pass on this lot when originally scanning the online catalog. But went back for a closer inspection and glad that I did. I quickly saw that the usual German inspection marks were missing but that the SN showed that it wasn't an early post liberation build. That put it into another rare category: a late-war, occupation built commercial pistol with a Eagle/N marks (mostly, more on that later). Bidding was so tepid as the photos were wretched and it was easy to understand why most bidders would shy away considering the crude late-war finish. So I was all-in and when the hammer dropped so did my jaw: $270 with the vig.
-This example has a distinct mark that IDs it as a commercial example: a triangle shaped mark at the back of the frame. Those built for the German military will not have this mark. This very late occupation example also has an Eagle/N mark missing the "N". In 1944 the Eagle/N die at FN worn out and wasn't replaced. So the result is an Eagle only mark on the slide and an E/N mark on the frame on mine. The rest of the features are classic late war: rough finish, trigger without flange, no magazine safety. All done to expedite the rate of production. The SN of mine is only 17 away from one of the roughly 20 recorded in Vanderlinden's 3rd edition of FN Browning Pistols. Gotta say that I love this book and that it's more than paid for itself over and over again.

 

[KH195]

Now there’s a great mawkie score! Heck of a price on that, you stole it for sure. Pretty tough to find indeed and it’s interesting they were producing commercial examples in any number at that point of the war. Terrific find!!

I stumbled across one of the other late war commercial variations of these several years back, no eagle/N but instead it’s reichsadler eagle/swastika marked with same commercial triangle stamp. Assuming they pulled some parts originally destined for military production before final waffenamt stamps applied but who knows.

 

[mawkie]

The one thing that geeks me out is the story about the odd way that FN employees "sabotaged" production by spending too much time polishing. So here you have some examples on the production line that have classic pre-war commercial finishes next to rough, ugly examples with rushed, military finishes.

 

[mawkie]

Now there’s a great mawkie score! Heck of a price on that, you stole it for sure. Pretty tough to find indeed and it’s interesting they were producing commercial examples in any number at that point of the war. Terrific find!!

I stumbled across one of the other late war commercial variations of these several years back, no eagle/N but instead it’s reichsadler eagle/swastika marked with same commercial triangle stamp. Assuming they pulled some parts originally destined for military production before final waffenamt stamps applied but who knows.
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That's nice! Note how there's no finishing at the back of the frame, to get it flush with the slide. Just throw it together and get it out the door.

 

[somd_mustangs]

Good catch! Looks to be in great shape plus the plastic grips are a bonus (vice the wood). That's a crazy good price too, you can't even buy a holster for one of these for that money any more!

For some reason there were a larger number of the commercial FN1922's in the late b and early c block, but you'll also find them sprinkled throughout production. There's several variations, e.g. E/S or E/N, some very few with E/140 + E/N, etc. Plus the Geco / Noris / AKAH retailer-marked ones. But they all have the funky triangle on the rear frame (the High Power commercial has a similar mark on rear left frame). It's only recently - maybe since the popularity of the 2nd edition of Vanderlinden's book? - that the commercial ones brought any interest. Now they usually bring a premium over the standard E/140 military ones but sometimes they fly under the radar.

this one is in the 215xxx (no suffix) range.