Lot 1556: St. Etienne/Manufrance Le Francais 28 "Armee" Pistol

Introduced in 1928, the Model 28 is a straight-blowback double action only semi-automatic pistol in 9 mm Browning. While using a spring-loaded slide like most 20th century automatic pistols, the 28's slide was not meant to be pulled back by the operator; instead a lever on the right side operates the flip-up barrel to either hand-load the first round or manually extract the cartridge to clear the weapon, with a spring-loaded carrier mounted to the magazine floor plate to store said cartridge. Fixed sights, with a smooth ribbed barrel, the one-line Saint-Etienne address on the right side of the slide, "LE FRANCAIS" on top, and "TYPE ARMEE" on the left. The barrel latch and trigger are casehardened, with a set of smooth brass medallions on the checkered grips and a full blue magazine equipped with a cartridge loop.

Excellent, with 95% plus of the original blue finish, showing some minor spotting, edge wear and handling marks. 80% of the original case colors remain on the trigger. The grips are also excellent, with a gouge in the left side near the trigger and some light dings. Mechanically excellent.