- I didn't bother trying to get a photo of it, but the sight picture is terrrrrrrible. The front blade is decent-sized, as you should be able to see in the side views, but the gun doesn't really have a proper rear sight; just a sort of shallow gutter in the top of the frame. That isn't an Eibar thing, though; the old Smiths these were copied from were set up exactly the same. Handguns just... didn't have decent sights in 1905. Marksmanship as we understand it today was not much of a concern among people who were buying 4"-barrelled revolvers at the turn of the 20th century.

- Although these particular guns are as aboveboard as products of Spain's... unique... intellectual property system get, with obvious (if not necessarily well-executed) markings indicating their true manufacture, some Eibar manufacturers were not above a little creative fraud, try to get a little bank out of customers who weren't paying very close attention. For an amusing example, see Ian's video about a "Smill & Welson" revolver that claims to have been manufactured in Sprangfeld, Musachusetts.

That kind of trickery doesn't seem to have been Trocaola Aranzabal's thing anyway. I found a copy of their catalog (year unknown) online, and the products it depicts are not attempted deceptions, but rather unapologetically own-brand counterfeits. In fact, if my high-school Spanish has not entirely abandoned me, the hype at the front of the catalog comes right out and says something to the effect of, "Among the diverse models we offer, our imitation Smith & Wesson and Colt types have conquered much legitimate fame in their variety of systems and calibers." ("Entre los diversos modelos que elaboramos han conquistado fama muy legítima los tipos imitación Smith & Wesson y Colt, en su variedad de sistemas y calibres.")

One page of said catalog even shows their copy of a .38 Special M&P, the gun they would adapt to 8mm Ordnance for the French contract, and the one illustrated is clearly marked with TA&C's own logo.

Which is pretty cool, you ask me.

(I'm not sure whether the places on the grips where the logo appears in the civilian model were left blank on purpose on the French contract guns, or if the ones on my particular pistol have just worn off, like the FEG logos on my Frommer Stop's grips have done. The instance engraved on the side of the frame itself seems never to have been there.)

- I mentioned that Smith & Wesson are still in business and still making the Model 10. Unfortunately, Trocaola, Aranzabal & Co., and indeed virtually all of the gunmakers of Eibar, were not so fortunate. I mentioned that the nearby town of Guernica was bombed during the Civil War in part because of its arms factories. When the Falangist forces of Generalísimo Francisco Franco* won that war and took control of the country, most of the factories and shops in Eibar were closed as part of Franco's consolidation of power. He selected a handful that would be allowed to go on functioning as, essentially, government arsenals, and had the rest destroyed. TA&C was not one of the lucky winners of that particular lottery.

- If you're interested in knowing more about the Eibar arms industry, I discovered after writing the main article that there is in fact a museum of the arms industry, cunningly named the Museum of the Arms Industry, in present-day Eibar. That's where I found that TA&C catalog. I haven't explored their website at length, but it appears to be presented in English, (Castellano) Spanish, Basque, and French, and it looks pretty interesting if you're into that kind of thing.

--G.
* Who is still dead.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.