Actually, this is not a prototype gun. It is one of the earliest known production pieces. An earlier production piece, #19, was sold at auction to Doug Smith not too long ago. I had to eat a lot of crow on that one, because up until that time I was of the mistaken impression that the production pieces were numbered sequentially after the prototype and pre-production pieces so I thought #19 should have been a pre-production model. Not so. Prototype, pre-production and production all had their own serial number sequence (in the case of the prototypes there really was no sequence as one is numbered 00 and others have no serial number). Never too old to learn I guess and never too proud to admit a mistake.
__________________
If it's made after 1918...it's a reproduction
|