Long time listener first time caller. Just curious about the markings, and I don't see a cereal #. Maybe an early model? Love the history and the mystery.
It is a "Baby Bulldog", a common cheap hideout revolver from the 1870s on.
I eyeball the caliber as the European equivalent of .32 Colt.
One of the type would have cost 8-10 German Marks in 1911 while a real 1892 French was 42 Marks.
The proof marks look Belgian except not with the long time standard ELG stamp, so I can't be sure there.
Do you think the "cereal" number is not 52?
It may be a "batch number", 52nd gun made on a contract with some distributor. I know big companies like FN and Remington did that.
Not sure. 52 is on every single piece. Someone told me it was a number as to not get pieces mixed up from other guns at the factory because parts were not interchangeable at the time.
I have not taken it completely apart. There may still be another #. I was curious that I could not find another "Lebel" with the pin setup like this. Unique in my eyes.
Unique NOW largely because they were cheap and nasty, most of them scrapped over the century plus.
The Zhuk book shows 73 of the general type and the 1911 Alfa catalog a dozen more, none exactly like yours, which means there had to be more models.
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