[Guest]

Posted - 12/18/2003 : 7:59:45 PM
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Hi,

Just got this pistol and am trying to figure out what the deal is with this anchor on the lower left triggerguard.I thank you all in advance!
Serial # is 89xxx, WaA140





Download Attachment: b1922anchor.JPG
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Download Attachment: b1922anchor2.JPG
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[mas]

Any chance you can get us better photos? How many of the Waffenamt stamps are there and where are they located? Any other marks?

Mike

 

[Ron Wood]

Until Roadhustler63 gets a chance to take more photos, I have fiddled with the photo a little to make it easier to see the anchor. Perhaps that will help to identify it.
Anchor.jpg

 

[mas]

Nifty trick, Ron. Now we can see it. I've never observed this on any of the FNs before. I don't know of any Naval organizations using such an acceptance stamp. Does anyone else recognize it? RoadHustler: Can you tell whether the stamp was applied before or after the bluing?

 

[paulaud]

Hello, concerning the little anchor engraved on your nazi FN Browning M.1910-22, it remembers me some pistols seen in a french military navy museum that I visited a year ago at Brest (France). French “Marine Nationale” used large numbers of FN 1910-22 Cal .32 ACP before and after WW II. These ones beared a nice engraved anchor on the top or the side of the slide and were bought directly to the FN plant. What I discovered in this little firearms museum was that a large number of german pistols were captured and brought back in service after WW II in the French navy (ruined after the war). Knowing personnaly the keeper of this fascinating little museum, I had the opportunity to examine numerous nazis FN 1910-22 models with wooden grips and “WaA 140” stamps with various Sauer 38H (of the very last war models) and germans Browning GP 35 among others models. All that guns were in service till the adoption of the MAC Modèle 1950 Cal. 9 mm Lüger, with a wide variety of pistols and revolvers. I’m afraid I didn’t examine these models too carefully to discover a little anchor on the triggerguard but our navy used to engrave anchors in all her weapons (Revolvers M.1873, 1874 & 1892 for example) until now and I would be surprised that the captured nazis pistols would be an exception to the rule.
I hope it could help you, I don’t know if your anchor is a french navy one but it resembles to and I think that the use of various nazis pistols in the “Marine Nationale” could interest some folks of this fascinating website. Congratulations for the webmaster!
P.S.: Sorry for the faults, I have only a poor scholastic english speaking…

 

[Darwin]

No need to apologize for your English. It is wonderful that these forums can bring people together from all over the world. The information you shared is more important than your fluency in English and you made yourself adequatlely understood. Thank you for participating and welcome to the forums. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the museum again maybe you can examine the Nazi marked pistols again to see if any are marked with anchors. Or maybe you can contact the museum and ask them to check.

 

[Guest]

For a pistol that was manufactured in Belgium, albeit never used by the Belgian army, the FN Browning model 1922 has a fascinating history before, during and after the war that continues to amaze me. I suspect one could collect the varients in this model alone and end up with a large collection when it was complete! Thanks to everyone for sharing your knowledge about this model.

 

[cpw]

quote:Originally posted by paulaud

Hello, concerning the little anchor engraved on your nazi FN Browning M.1910-22, it remembers me some pistols seen in a french military navy museum that I visited a year ago at Brest (France). French “Marine Nationale” used large numbers of FN 1910-22 Cal .32 ACP before and after WW II. These ones beared a nice engraved anchor on the top or the side of the slide and were bought directly to the FN plant. What I discovered in this little firearms museum was that a large number of german pistols were captured and brought back in service after WW II in the French navy (ruined after the war). Knowing personnaly the keeper of this fascinating little museum, I had the opportunity to examine numerous nazis FN 1910-22 models with wooden grips and “WaA 140” stamps with various Sauer 38H (of the very last war models) and germans Browning GP 35 among others models. All that guns were in service till the adoption of the MAC Modèle 1950 Cal. 9 mm Lüger, with a wide variety of pistols and revolvers. I’m afraid I didn’t examine these models too carefully to discover a little anchor on the triggerguard but our navy used to engrave anchors in all her weapons (Revolvers M.1873, 1874 & 1892 for example) until now and I would be surprised that the captured nazis pistols would be an exception to the rule.
I hope it could help you, I don’t know if your anchor is a french navy one but it resembles to and I think that the use of various nazis pistols in the “Marine Nationale” could interest some folks of this fascinating website. Congratulations for the webmaster!
P.S.: Sorry for the faults, I have only a poor scholastic english speaking…

Your English is far better than my French. So do not be concerned.

 

[Dgiz]

On page 46 of "Military Handguns Of France 1858-1958" by Eugene Medlin and Jean Huon, there is a photo of a small anchor used on the 1892 revolvers. Can't really tell by your photo, but they are close in size. Maybe some of these dies were still in use. They could have been used to mark 1922's that weren't factory marked on the slide.
Dean

 

[paulaud]

Unfortunetely, this little museum has closed in May 2003. It belonged to the navy and wasn't opened to civilian visitors. The guns are now stocked at Lorient, an other base of the Marine Nationale, but no more visible so I can't examine them anymore.
But concerning the anchor, you must know that it was generally stamped in navy armories but could be stamped by the gunsmith of every unity where the guns were delivered. The dies were numerous and not always identicals so it is difficult to authenticate them. Meanwhile, this anchor looks like very closely to the one stamped on a french navy revolver Chamelot-Delvigne M.1873M that I own.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for posting.....i've been away for awhile, just now getting back to posting! Sorry......I have since acquired a better camera. If anyone wants to revisit this discussion, I can take much better quality photos now!