This compact pistol is 115 years old. It is a hammerless blowback design based on the Browning 1903. It fires .32 ACP, with a 7 round magazine.

Its markings definitively identify its origin. It is one of the earliest pistols manufactured in Eibar, Spain by the Astra-Unceta company (then known as Esperanza y Unceta) before their production moved to Guernica.

All pistols manufactured by this company in its early years shared a single serial number sequence. The sub-7000 serial means it is a very early example, manufactured in 1911 most likely.

The general type of this pistol is referred to by sone as the "Eibar" type, and there were many manufacturers in Spain producing similar pistols. Esperanza y Unceta's pistols were the highest quality among these. Later iterations of this design became the "Ruby" type pistol used as a standard sidearm by the French in WW1.

Information is from "Astra Automatic Pistols" by Leonardo M. Antaris, Library of Congress catalog card number 88-81962

It is in working condition and free of rust, but hasn't been treated as an antique.

It came into my hands via my father, who said he bought it in Naples in 1946 when his ship visited there on his way home after WW2. I am quite sure he knew nothing of its distinctive value and from 1946-1986 it was his hunting sidearm. (In a deerskin soft holster my mom made for it; you get that too if you like.) It has spent most of the last forty years in the back of various closets and safes. Its first 35 years saw it near two world wars and the Spanish Civil War; if it could talk it might have some very interesting stories.

I am in no particular hurry to part with it, and I would like to see it go to someone who will appreciate its history.