first thing i would say is that,.. beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and your father is within his rights to create what he wishes, in that regard. while the gun might not be pleasing to all eyes, there is little question that he has a great deal of skill, and has lavished much time and effort onto this project.
now i will make some observations that (might) pertain to the age, and origins of the gun: argo has amended his original posting of dates and model numbers, and now shows listings for 1930 production. his list shows several grades above 32-S, whereas, the document that i have at hand does not. we are only privileged to see an extremely small number of truly high grade m-f guns in the usa. some of those few i have seen photographed, are quite elaborately finished. therefore it is difficult to know to what degree this gun has been customized.
the document that i have, shows production of robusts from 1913, through 1980, and total production of somewhere around 950,000 guns. there is no known listing that will correlate serial numbers with the year of production (an advantage that we have with m-f ideal models). one of the few "handles" we can use to estimate times of production are, 1) the changing of model designations in 1931, and 2) the changing of production offerings following the second world war. both of those transitions are shown within argo's listing on page 6.
the thing that has me puzzled, is how the gun could have both pre-war, and post-war model designations present. the serial number is clearly shown on the forearm lug, and you state that it is repeated on the top strap under the lever. my #226 is numbered 184688, and that model was only cataloged from 1932 until production ceased in 1940....i have always assumed it to be mid to late 1930's. your gun would then predate mine, by some 70,000 - and yet, it has a post-war model number??
at this point, perhaps fab500, canvasback, or some other person can step in and provide additional insights....and i will be as interested in new information as you are!
best regards,
tom
