Pistol Identification

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hawk44

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I collect different weapons from all over the world, military and civilian. Recently i bought one that i can't find very much info on. It is marked on the left side of the slide: 765 1915 de Guerre Paramount. I presume it is a .32 auto because the clip contained 8 of said rounds. Does anyone out there know the history of this particular pistol? Please email hawk44@datasync.com
 
All I have is a small fuzzy picture in W.H.B. Smith. It is one of a large number of cheap knockoffs of the Colt/Browning .32 made in Spain or maybe just over the border in Basque France and sold to suckers in Asia and Latin America. It looks even cheaper than the similar Ruby which was used as a substitute standard by the French Army.
 
Retolaza Hermanos of Eibar made such copies that bore the Paramount brand. The examples pictured in the following links all bear a 1914 year mark, and lack the "de Guerre" mark.

In his Handguns of the World(c.1981, p.541-543), E. C. Ezell documents somewhere around twenty different Eibar Manufacturers producing these pistols on contract for the French and Italians between 1915 and 1916, most numerous (I infer from the text) going to the French. Is it possible that the "de Guerre" mark, which literally means ''of war," as well as the 1915 year mark indicates it was produced under one such contract for use by the French in the Great War?

Retolaza Hermanos "VILAR" (Despite claiming a "VILAR" mark, it is "Paramount" which appears on the left of of the pictured pistol's slide.)
RETOLAZA Hermanos, Eibar, Spain (Note the rather comical, and barely useful google translation into English!)
 
re: 32 Automatic ID

Thank you Jim and Dave for you input to my curious zell for identifying and learning some of the history of this particular pistol. The reason i bought it is for the wife, something small, shoots good and doesn't pack a recoil for her. She actually enjoys shooting here on the farm. She is also considering hunting this year with a classic Savage 99F in .250-3000, got to put her a scope mount on it......anyways..........thanks guys, gone on vacation to the Tennessee mountains, will post a pic of this thing when i get back.

Hawk
 
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