Early French Unique 17

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  • mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,337
    Catonsville
    -Found a very interesting French Unique Model 17 in yet another PA auction. From the low SN I'm thinking this one was built in 1928 or '29. As such it would have left the factory with the pre-war hard rubber "Lion" grips. Hard rubber being what it is, tends to chip and break. So it was no surprise that I found it sporting replacement wartime era grips.
    -It's very hard to find early pre-war Model 17s. This one is only the second that I've run across in the last 3 years. I slogged through the Model 17 serial number list on Jan Still's site and there was only one other prewar example listed with a sn about 1500 higher than mine.
    -Last photo shows a Model 17 with the correct factory issue "Lion" grips.
     

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    mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,337
    Catonsville
    -In the end it's just a well built Ruby. Makes me wonder if the Ruby design would have been seen in a different light had it been built to much higher quality levels in WWI. Obviously the German Army didn't have issues with those built by Unique.
     

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