Gold plated early Smith

P

PJHeck

Inactive
I lunch with a group of Viet vets & frustrated drag racers on Thursdays. We rotate between local eateries.......

Little college town just west of here, Rio-Grande, Ohio, has a barbeque specialty place. I think the gal owner is a Viet Vet........anyway, our only colored guy is ALMOST blind. Vickys husband (dont ever remember his name), sat next to blind guy across from me on one occasion couple years ago. After ordering, he came up with a smallish black hard plastic gun case, opened it to expose the gold S&W. Yukky, I thought, some clown ruined an oldy......Then he produced a provenance letter from Roy Jinks at S&W while blind guy looked at the gun.........then it got passed around the table. When it got back to me, I asked to see the provenance letter. Sure enuff, it was one of 10 that S&W had record of from the 1890s. It is .32 Safety Hammerless, First Model, 1891. It went to an outside shop with 9 others for gold plating & pearl grips to fill a special order. Somebody was a country barber in this area back when, and ended up with the gun somehow.

Interesting that one of 10 would show up in the backwoods of Ohio from the New England area...its in my big show case now.!!!!!!

PJH
 

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I’m sure this gun looks much nicer in person as this kind of finish is very hard to photograph correctly. I like it and a great gun to take to a BBQ. I like the pun of having a yellow lemon squeezer.
 
Gold plating is very soft- think LEAD soft. It wears easily just from handling.
As this gun has provenance, it should be oiled regularly, and handled as little as possible to preserve the gold plating.
 
Howdy

Interesting that the plating house followed the same scheme with the plating that S&W did. The frame and everything else on these guns was plated, the trigger guards were blued amd the triggers were Case Hhardened.

32%20safety%20hammerless%20with%20box%2002_zpsixc8gpq2.jpg





This 38 Safety Hammerless, 2nd Model shows the plating scheme a little bit better. The trigger guard is blued, the trigger is Case Hardened. everything else is nickel plated.

38%20Safety%20Hammerless%202nd%20Model%2001_zpsn8bzqkrn.jpg





Did you get the box with it? The paper and cardboard boxes are not worth a whole lot, but some of the more exotic cases can be worth money to a collector.

Do you have a photo of the 'smallish black hard plastic gun case'?

P.S. What is the date on your letter?
 
Driftwood Johnson said:
Howdy

Interesting that the plating house followed the same scheme with the plating that S&W did. The frame and everything else on these guns was plated, the trigger guards were blued amd the triggers were Case Hhardened.

32%20safety%20hammerless%20with%20box%2002_zpsixc8gpq2.jpg





This 38 Safety Hammerless, 2nd Model shows the plating scheme a little bit better. The trigger guard is blued, the trigger is Case Hardened. everything else is nickel plated.

38%20Safety%20Hammerless%202nd%20Model%2001_zpsn8bzqkrn.jpg





Did you get the box with it? The paper and cardboard boxes are not worth a whole lot, but some of the more exotic cases can be worth money to a collector.

Do you have a photo of the 'smallish black hard plastic gun case'?

P.S. What is the date on your letter?
Click to expand...
I know you wouldn't want to but are these 32's shootable with modern ammo?

Gary
 
Wow, looks to be in really nice condition for its age. Interesting that it is one of ten, heck of an addition to any collection.
 
Ah..........no barbecue explanation until you admit to liking the S&W.!!!!!!

Ever heard of Bob Evans......he lived here, not a barbecue guy though.........but in the same vein.

PJH
 
An extremely rare and valuable weapon. Thanks for sharing.

Oh and a box for it would be worth a couple of hundred.

tipoc
 
Alas.......no box. I suspect a box that old & never intended to be anything but a shipping container would have crumbled by now..????

Did you see the auto pistols I posted in that section...???

PJH
 
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No the box would not have crumbled if properly kept. Note the box that Driftwood posted pics of. Same period.

tipoc
 
I'm surprised at the condition of that gold plating. Gold plating is normally pretty darn thin due to the cost of gold. I can see no thinning of the plating. It looks like it could be solid gold, not plated. Did they used to plate gold much thicker than they would now ?? Did they employ electroplating ?

Here's how they would gold plate a helmet, for example, during Napoleonic times. Cover the helmet with a mixture of mercury and gold. Burn off the mercury leaving behind a layer of gold. The results of this method are quite stunning.
 
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The gun was electroplated. It probably was plated heavily. The problem with gold plating is not really the thickness of the plate, but how soft the gold is.
 
Exactamundo... That's why I'm so surprised by the condition. The piece was either handled very little or it's had a re-plate. Is there any way to tell if a gold plate has been refreshed ?
 
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