32 colt automatic?

[Brett Bellmore]

This is my pal Rick's question, not mine. Take it from here, Rick!

Pistol is a Colt auto 32 cal, serial number 538487. Patent dates Apr 20,1897; Dec 22,1903. I am interested in approx. date of manufacture, approx worth, and if any literature is available.

 

[johnwill]

Here's a site that you can get all the info you ever wanted to know about your little gun.

Colt Autos

Using this site, your gun was made in 1939. As far as value, condition is everything, so we'd have to know a lot more about the gun to even guess at a value.

 

[Brett Bellmore]

Hey, thanks, I'll get this to him. He's going to see if he can't borrow a digital camera and snap a pic tonight, if he can I'll post it tomorrow.

I showed him that site, and we located the model. He says his has the ivory grips, and is blued. The bluing shows just a bit of holster wear, and there are a couple of pinpoint corrosion spots.

 

[johnwill]

When you come to the pricing part, I normally check what pistol models I'm interested are selling for on the various on-line auctions and at gunshows. This gives me an upper threshold of pricing.

 

[Brett Bellmore]

Here's the pics. Actually, seems the grips are some kind of plastic, not the ivory.

 

[johnwill]

Well, the grips sure don't look like anything the Colt factory puts on them, so that will reduce the value significantly. You can, of course, pick up some factory grips to "restore" the gun. Hard to tell the condition from the picture, but it looks decent.

 

[Archie]

I have .32 Pocket Pistol, too.

The finish on mine is bare metal, but when I bought it, it had the same nasty yellow looking grips as the one pictured here.

I wonder if these were the hot item aftermarket of the day?

 

[444]

I have wanted one of those for years.

 

[johnwill]

Here's mine, it's a 1921 manufactured one in about 98-99% condition. Traded a tube tester for it a few years back. I'm not sure, but I think I got the better end of the deal!

 

[Johnny Guest]

Those ugly ol' yellow stocks - - -

- - -may not be too ugly after all. Hard to tell from a photo, but I think they may very well be the fossilized tree resin, (what, amber?) that was so popular in the 1920s era. There were also some imitation ones in circulation that were called "celluloid grips," which are becoming collectible in their own right. Genuine amber stocks, though, can be quite valuable.

A lot of people think the John Wayne sidearm had ivory stocks, but they were really the waxy-looking yellow ones.

Replace 'em with proper Colt handles if you will, but don't throw the old ones away!

Best,
Johnny

 

[johnwill]

Gosh Johnny, I never throw anything like that away!