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Originally Posted by Shakethetrees
Since we seem to be drifting into a more general discussion, I would like to show a little piece that I've had for thirty years.
It's marked "Made by Rollin White for Smith and Wesson".
.22 caliber short, but the most interesting thing to this discussion (and to me, personally), is that the cylinder is engraved with three Chinese characters (old style) "People of Min (Fujian) Province"
I was stumped on this character but an old Chinese man recognized it and explained that Min Province became Fukien (Fujian in pinyin) sometime in the early 20th century.
This pistol bears a striking resemblance to the one illustrated in the old newspaper article.
It also could have been used in China during one or another revolutionary uprising during the 19th or 20th centuries, or, by a member of a Tong during the aforementioned periods, possibly in San Francisco.
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Rollin White (June 6, 1817 – March 22, 1892) was an American gunsmith who invented a bored-through revolver cylinder that allowed metallic cartridges to be loaded from the rear of a revolver's cylinder.
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In interesting gun, is it the 7 shot model? Thanks to posting it and your other items, all part of history. I have seen several weapons from other countries end up in China, brought there by foreign military forces, one in particular is a very distintive Indian axe, most likely left by Indian troops serving with the British in China. The other possibility is that the pistol was inscribed in America by a Chinese national working in the US.