What is it??

[Taylor]

[lefty o]

ugly! LOL idk what it really is.

[Taylor]

Belgian?

[Dan Cash]

Baby hammerless. The late Ron Rudin of Las Vegas, Nevada had a very large collection of these things. Part of that collection was displayed on a 4 x 8 board in his Vegas Gun Traders gun shop on west Charleston.

[KCSO]

Probably a Velo Dog Several different brands of these in Arms of the World 1911. The closest match I see is Belgian Velo Dog American Model 39 Marks in 1911 for a nickled with pearl grips. Shoots a long centerfire 22 cartridge.

[Taylor]

It appears to be stamped 7.65, I don't think that is a .22 caliber.Could be wrong.This pistol belongs to a friend in NYC,(retired police).ask me to find out what it is.Apparently it has been in his family for a long time.

[Grmps]

https://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/KolbBH/kolbbh.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=baby...w=1384&bih=599

[jimb16]

7.65 is a .32 cal. Probably .32 RF.

[NoZombies]

Actually it's most likely .32 colt or .32 S&W caliber. Most of these were in CF calibers. Probably a 5 shot cylinder, and the little lever on the side is a safety.

[John Boy]

Check the firing pin to determine if the cartridges are CF or RF. Rimfire pin will be flat and long

[rintinglen]

That is almost certainly Belgian, probably 32 S&W, not 32 S&W Long. There were dozens, if not scores, of manufacturers, most of whom were cottage industry "mini" factories.
They were sold all over Europe from about 1890 through World War One. The German occupation of Belgium put paid to most of these businesses, who never returned to manufacturing firearms when peace came.

[beagle]

Looks like a short club with a mother of pearl striking surface./beagle

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It is most likely be Belgian on style alone, and as Belgian firearms were usually proved, there would be a mark somewhere, ELG in an oval, and another, the perron of Liège, like a small candlestick. If that oval has an added crown it would be post-1893. The only other really likely country of manufacture would be Spain. An absence of any of the marks shown on this website would tend to point at Spain, since I don't think they had a commonly used proofing system before 1910.

It is in very much the style of the Velo-dog revolvers, but the cylinder is too short, and 7.65 makes it a .32. (assuming it really says that, for the last digits don't look clear to me, and there was a much less common 7mm. revolver cartridge.) It is more likely to be the short than long .32 Smith and Wesson round, but in Europe the .32 Colt rounds, normally interchangeable with the earlier .320 British, was more comemon than the larger-diameter, inside lubed Smith and Wesson versions. As it has a rod ejector the rimless .32ACP is also a strong possibility, as it was often used in guns of this type.

I have looked at the many revolvers of this type illustrated in "Arms of the World 1911", which is actually the catalogue of Adolf Frank, the Hamburg arms dealer. Those for revolver cartridges appear to have a gap at the rear of the cylinder, rather than a rebate for each rim. This gap doesn't exist with those chambered for the rimless .32ACP. So this may be the most likely chambering. There are modern loads I wouldn't fire in it, but it is likely to be safe with those current in the early days of the automatic pistol.

It is an uninspiring firearm, but I can see no very concrete reason to consider it worse for close-up defence than the .25 and .32 automatics of today. It is virtually impossible to fire by accident, and in most European jurisdictions the criminal would be in much hotter water if he harmed someone with a gun, than a knife or club. So there is every chance it would be the only firearm around.

[osteodoc08]

Interesting. I love threads like these