In order to replace famous Parabellum the SIG company in 1937 acquired the right to exploit the patents of Charles Petter for the manufacture of a new automatic pistol.
The first of these guns in cal. 7,65 Para and 9 mm left SIG premises only a few years before the WWII
In 1942 this gun was modified and became the SP/44 but apparently hard military tests ruined the first test guns. Subsequently from this model started the so called "SP 47/8" meaning the 47 for the year of production and 8 for the number of cartridges in the magazine. Soon after (1948) the Swiss Army adopted this gun under the name M/49
S/N of SP 47/8 go from No 6029 to 7030, so one thousand of them were originally made, and this gun has S/N 65xx
At the time most of these "pre series SP 47/8 went to Swedish range shooters.
This obviously scarce gun is in exeptionally good conditions, BUT, we are in Italy and the original barrel has been rechambered, transforming the original cal 9 Para into 9X21 IMI
AND actually it is very expensive: (about USD 4700.00)
Amletic doubt: shall I try to get it for my collection of forget it completely?