Fabric National Mauser Pistol

L

Lincoln

Inactive
Can any one identify this 32 cal. pistol. It is manufactured by Fabric National. On the left side of the slide is stamped NATIONAL DARMES de GURRE HERSTAL BELGIQUE and on the frame it has the FN logo. On the right side it has the serial number on the frame, the slide, and the barrel. On the slide over the grip it has the Mauser logo with a Belgium proof mark on each side. On top of the slide and barrel it has Belgium proof marks, but also on the slide next to the hammer it has what looks like a palm tree proof mark.
It is an FN Mauser with a palm tree proof mark. Any one have any history on this production?






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That looks nothing like any Mauser or FN pistol I've ever seen.

I also don't know of FN/Mauser ever having collaborated on a pistol.

I do, however, know that the Chinese knockoff makers often slapped multiple manufacturer names and proofmarks on their guns in an effort to make them seem legitimate.

I'm almost 100% positive that is what you have -- a Chinese made gun.

Your gun looks something like this one (only with a shorter barrel): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.605333849508601.1073741842.116445878397403&type=3
 
FN Mauser Chinese

What a surprise, I was expecting some FM contract version or something. Put a longer grip ,a longer barrel, and decorate the slide with the phony sight and it is the same pistols in the examples you you posted.
 
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+2 - AND, welcome to the forum. :)

A Chinese 7.65 autoloader from the 1930's, with markings to make it appear to be of German manufacture.

Here's a couple of other Chinese guns, of the same type, but with a different design:

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About the same as coconut in something called "German Chocolate Cake".
No palm trees or coconuts growing in Germany naturally.
 
It is manufactured by Fabric National.
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That looks nothing like any Mauser or FN pistol I've ever seen.
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Well, of course it looks different. Fabric National (who I believe made cloth before venturing into the gun business) is a different company from the more well known firearms manufacturer Fabrique National.

OK, sarcasm off.
 
If you turn the palm tree upside down it bears a resemblance to the Perron Mark, Belgium's black power proof mark.
Next question is. If this is a Chinese copy, who's design was it that they copied?
 
Petah W.'s second pistol appears to be a copy of the FN Browning Model 1900. The other gun (and the OP's gun) are a composite of design features, mostly from Mauser and Mannlicher. The Mauser C96 type sight may be functional, but on some of those guns it is a dummy that cannot actually be adjusted for elevation.

Jim
 
Take a look in Mathews' Firearms Identification volumes. You will see plenty of 1900 Browning copies as well as numerous handmade pistols of "original" design. These were made for sale to peasants and back country uneducated warlords who were unable to read English or recognize symbols any more than you can read Chinese.

I had a small collection of Browning 1900 copies some years back and all had the same serial number or a part thereof. Some of the guns in Mathews' book also have the same serial number, indicating that they were all copied from either the same 1900 or from the copy and so on. One of the more accurately produced copies was a Vietnam bringback in abysmal condition, and it had a different serial number than the others.

One of the most unusual pieces of the collection was a Browning 1900 copy that was probably half again as big as a real 1900 and was chambered for .30 Mauser. The Chinese used a very clever means of getting around the high pressure: The bore was tapered, and the bullet only contacted the rifling in about the last 3/4" of the bore. I took a chance and fired it one time; It worked.
 
For many years after 1900, and even after WWI, the FN Browning 1900 was considered the world's best semi-auto. For one thing, it worked, when many more expensive pistols did not. It is a very clever design, and a very reliable pistol. It looks odd to us, but that was no barrier to sales in those days, and they were highly coveted. Naturally, it was copied, with more or less skill, throughout the world, by folks whose ideas of patent rights were, so say the least, rudimentary.

Jim
 
I am still curious to know who designed this pistol. It does not look like an FN or Mauser.
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Given the time frame in which these pistols were made, there are some features copied from Ruby type pistols (placement of the safety, etc.). It also appears that the barrel pivots; This may well have been copied from a contemporary Spanish Jo-Lo-Ar. The slide has physical similarities to Mauser pistols, which were quite popular in China in the interwar years; In fact, Germany had a great influence on China between the war years.

In other words, Won Hung Lo, the Chinese gunsmith, just chose dominant features of various guns he had seen and dreamed up his own design. (To put it another way, we will never know who the "designer" was.) :p
 
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