April 24-25, 2019 Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/25/2019
Fabrique Nationale started producing the Hi-Power in May 1935. Pre-war pistols were finished in a rust blue finish. The tangent sights were graduated from 50 to 500 meters. This is the early variant in which the number fills 60% of the sight leaf. This is referred to as a Type I. The front sight on the pre-war models is a dovetail blade on a solid base. Grips are made of French walnut and are checkered. Backs of the grips are painted red which was originally done as a moisture barrier. Gun has matching serial numbers on frame, slide and stamped under the right grip panel. Pistol was factory slotted on rear strap for attachment of a shoulder stock. This has a pre-war magazine with a split-tail floorplate and phosphate finish. The serial numbers on pre-war pistols cannot be used to identify manufacturing date as pistols were made to order and assigned numbers at that time. After 1940, the Model 1935 was mass produced under German occupation. CONDITION: This pistol is in excellent overall original condition with Belgian rust blued finish. Gun has been used and holstered as evidenced by the wear at all high edges of forward section of slide, typical holster wear. Also has light high edge wear overall and a few scattered handling marks. The front grip strap has some light age freckling, blending with soft patina, and one small 1/2" rub to raw metal. Rear grip strap retains the majority of its original finish with light high edge wear and some age freckling. Overall, a solid 85%+ bright factory original blue with excellent grips that have seen a couple of small bruises, nothing of major note. Strong, well defined rifled bore.