I saw this on ebay, I've never seen a Lyman 35 like this before, is this some super early version of one?

Lyman 35?

Fred,

It looks to me as though someone has substituted a slide from another Lyman receiver sight (probably for a Springfield, considering the shape of the cross bar) for the original slide. I would go to an old Lyman catalog and look for a sight with the unique cut out in the bottom of it.

Bill

I believe this one is all original.

https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/detail.cfm?gun_id=101600632

What about it doesn't look 'right' to you?

Looks like a normal #35 that attached to the bolt release box on a Mauser.
The top bar has the dogleg in it , but that was the just the standard style bar for the sight.
I think this sight was just made for the Mauser.

A #34 was made for the 03 Springfield, Krag and Lee Enfield.
#36 for the M/S, Mosin Nagant & GEW88 type sporters,etc.

I don't recall ever seeing that keyhole shape cut before.

The #35 on one of my early commercial model 98 Mausers has the elevation adjusted by a rack and pinion. The subject sight lacks the entire pinion. I wonder if there was a different sight intended for the Mauser rifles, but without the rack and pinion adjustment.
Mike

Every Lyman 35 sight that I've seen up to the one on ebay looked like the one on gunsinternational.
The one on ebay, has a different slide, the top of which resembles a Lyman 35, the side of which looks
more like a Lyman 34, apart from the keyhole shape.

Lyman 34

On a typical Lyman 35, there is a knob at the front of the base, to adjust the elevation you loosen the locking lever
and turn the knob on the front. The sight on ebay has no knob, nor any provision for one. These are the things that
don't look right to me.

PhysDoc,
The "knob on the front" you mentioned turns the pinion I indicated is missing from the one on Ebay. See my comment above.
Mike

Yes, I saw that and should have pointed out that you caught that as well. I tried to write a complete comment that included everything
that I saw odd about it.

Fred

Well, I relearned how to do a patent search on the US Patent Office website and looked up the patent
corresponding to the date on the slide of the sight that sold yesterday.

So, the sight on ebay corresponds a lot closer to the patent drawing than what we usually think of as a Lyman 35 sight.