This pistol is a standard New Model Parabellum. The lazy c/N proofs place its manufacture in 1912-1913. Several features cause this pistol to be suspect. Swiss preference was for long-frame pistols; this has sort frame.
The small Swiss crosses which appear on the pistol appear to be fake, they are "sharper" than the authentic stamp. SPECULATION that they have been applied to justify/proof Swiss replacement of the barrel.This barrel does not have the front sight characteristic of Swiss preference. In any case, the small Swiss cross on a replacement barrel indicates Swiss military acceptance, and is found on the left side of the barrel, not underneath.
The four-digit serial number makes no sense. It does appear that a first digit has been either disguised or removed.
The Swiss cross-in-sunburst on the frame looks odd. Nothing diagnostic can be said about it without better pictures and removal of the whitening.
The post-war production statement is an ignorant reduction of Kenyon's comments (actually p.192), which themselves are a conflation of several different circumstances. Kenyon's comments, here as in many other places, have been made obsolete.
--Dwight
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