Quote:
Originally Posted by Olle
I would lean toward a "Chinese style" knock-off (like all those strangely marked C96 copies), but the US Property stamp throws me off. It seems to be of the same age as the gun, so why would a manufacturer do that?
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I would think both Colt logo and US Property stamps were added by gun maker. Tiny gun makers do not have much "moral standard" or "code of business" or something, whatever earning more doing whatever. The target market supposed to be US collector market (or European collector market?), not Asian market though. 1920 Chinese could not care less on "US Property" stamp. No such a demand. They cared a little bit on "horse brand" though, it's a sign of quality product.
After I post these three pistols in another forum, people expressed that they have seen a lot of these in storage. There were a few nicknames, "dog brand" (due to the dog-like proof stamp on the pistol), "three-piece iron". Have not played with these in the past, where did this nick name come from,,, will know soon... probably referring to its simple structure, grip frame, slide, and barrel, .. three pieces. They knew, "even Spanish bicycle transmission chain makers were making these, the quality was not higher than our small tractor repairing facility"
So, these guns also carry some interesting history in gun making.