Modelo Nº 7, de Orbea Hermanos

© KIRIMON JULY 2008

Being a S&W enthusiast and collector, I have always had a liking for the copies of these excellent guns. Many notable companies made their initial forays into revolver manufacturing by copying the weapons developed in other countries. The Belgians and the Spanish are most generally thought of when considering ‘copies’ – but it is interesting to note that the first Webley revolvers chambering self-contained cartridges, were copies of the S&W no 1and 2 rimfire models! (Ref Zhuk).

The fascinating thing from an historical point of view, about Spanish antique firearms is the scarcity of reliable information. Many documents and historical references were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War – so to find any interesting historical connections when researching an antique Spanish arm, I find particularly satisfying.

Extracts from ‘Spanish Army Handguns’ about system ONÁ. (‘Good’ in Basque)

“It is recommended by Royal Order of October 6^th, 1884, the revolver “modelo nº 7, de Orbea Hermanos”, (model number 7, of Orbea Brothers).
Its mechanism was of double action. Although it was not regulation firearm, it was used in big quantities by the Officers of the Spanish Army. It was adopted by the Guardia Civil until by Royal Order of October 5^th, 1922, it was substituted by the Star pistol, in 9 mm. Largo”

While many poor quality copies were produced of the S&W DA by other Spanish gun makers, under the general description of ‘ONÁ,’ the quality of the Orbea Hermanos No 7 was such that they were one of only two Spanish makers to receive a pistol contract from the British Army during the First World War, which in itself must be looked upon as a testimonial to their quality. Ref Hogg.

Up until 1916 the British Army were desperate to acquire revolvers - which our own hard pressed industries could not produce fast enough – so they purchased quantities of these S&W type top brake revolvers in British calibre .455 and military style of finish. This ‘Pistol OP No1 Mk1’ was declared obsolete for British service in 1921.

Britain could not produce nearly enough Official Pattern handguns for her needs, and turned to foreign suppliers who could provide acceptable ones chambered in .455; the most numerous and well-known such “Foreign Objects” (in War Department parlance) were the S&W “Hand Ejector” and Colt “New Service” models.

The other primary source for such “substitute standard” handguns was Spain. Here is a portion of the relevant text from Chapter 5, “Foreign Objects, 1900-1945”, in Chamberlain and Taylerson’s “Revolvers of the British Services, 1854-1954” –

”The Ministry of Munitions’ reasons for buying Spanish .455 inch revolvers, for British service, have been generally enunciated in their American context.” (Note: the main criteria referred to by that statement were (1) the existence of sufficient manufacturing capacity to produce large numbers of firearms, and (2) that the source country was not involved in the war as a belligerent.) “Thus there was a need for handguns, which U.K. industry could not meet, and at Eibar there was a Spanish revolver industry credited with an output of some 430,000 assorted revolvers during 1909. Further, one pattern of Spanish service revolver was readily adaptable to the .455 British round.”

The British service version of that Spanish revolver strongly resembles a Smith & Wesson “.44 Double Action” revolver of the 1880’s, and its pattern was but one of several such (Ona) recommended to Spanish officers by the Royal Decree 9of 6 October 1884) which introduced an 11 mm Spanish centre-fire service revolver cartridge.” (.44 Russian).

As you will gather from the above, the Spanish revolvers do not equate to any British pattern.

The text goes on to indicate that the pistol orders placed with “Orbea y Cia.” (“Orbea Hermanos” - Orbea Brothers), of Eibar, Spain, were handled by that firm in syndication with two other Eibar manufacturers: “Garate Anitua y Cia.” and “Troc#@$%a Aranzabal y Cia.” Apparently a total of 30,000 revolvers were contracted for.

Created in 1847 under the name “Orbea Hermanos (Brothers)” this company was dedicated at first to the manufacture of arms. Like most Spanish arms companies they were forced to cease manufacturing arms at the end of the Spanish civil war. Cannily, they turned their tooling over to the manufacturing of bicycles – and to this day continue as one of the worlds leading suppliers of quality bikes.

The Spanish museum of arms - Museum of the Armera Industry in Eibar - has in its collection a rather fine nickel plated No 7 Orbea Hermanos revolver; their website is well worth a visit… These are the best S&W type revolvers that any nation produced.

It is something akin to the ‘Holy Grail’ for me - to find a ‘perfect’ Spanish .44 DA. Althought the one for sale here today is far from that, it is one of the best type of S&W copies - although in truth the only thing copied is the general design principles – virtually everything else actually works in a different way! When you come agross a really good one of of these No 7’s one can see that they really are, as the Spanish claimed, supierior in their actions to the original S&W – and I have several American friends who grudgingly agee!

The revolver I am selling here today, has a 145mm barrel, the address of which is visible but unreadable - but would say ‘ORBEA HERMANOS Y CIA EIBAR CNN PRIVILEGE IC ESPANIA’ – which translates as ‘Orbea Brothers and Co Eibar made exclusively in Spain. Proof marks were not introduced in Spain until the 1920’s so there are none on this gun, but the barrel, cylinder trigger and frame are marked with the serial number 264, and some parts with the assembly numbers – so the piece is all original, as are the black hard rubber grips, which are in very worn but good undamaged condition and display the intertwined ‘OH’ trademark of the Orbea Hermanos. See Pics

Cosmetically the gun is very attractive; it retains virtually 100% of a very nice old re-blue – obviously a professional job. There is very little pitting, and generally this is a smooth crisp gun, but which has seen considerable use: it exhibits decent chambers, with some pitting as you would expect with the age of this item. The bore exhibits more pitting and the rifling has practically worn away, there is only the slightest hint of it remaining. One can only surmise that either this revolver has had a huge amount of rounds put through it or – as I think is more likely - been used with ammunition that was totally unsuitable.

Mechanically the gun is very good, everything works as it should: the auto ejection system, single and double action, rebounding hammer – a feature by no means common on the real S&W’s - indexing and both the frame and cylinder lock ups are very fair for a revolver that is over 100 years old… It really is a very nice piece to handle, and has certainly been looked after by previous owners – but because of the rifling I will only rate it its overall condition as ‘fair to good’.

These revolvers saw heavy use all over the world – being used obviously extensively in Spain both with the military, the Spanish Guardia Civil and of course civilian use. Existing and ex Spanish colonies also used them extensively: as well as military uses, the police forces of may South American countries were armed with these ‘Spanish Smith &Wesson’s’…

Prospective purchasers should note that this particular gun will have seen considerable use over its long working life – it has been the subject of repairs in the past, noticeable is the barrel latch – to tighten the frame lock up - see Pics - there may be more internally, but the old girl still functions very well – amazing to hold and wonder – what and how may other hands have held her and in what parts of the world…

This revolver is chambered for the .44 Russian revolver cartridges. This is an obsolete calibre. The age of this item, plus the fact that this calibre is regarded as ‘obsolete’ - means that it complies fully with UK legislation, and no license is required, as long as it is held as curiosity or ornament.

Comes with the totally inert .44 Russian cartridges shown to enhance your display.

Please note: - these cartridges are entirely solid. Their bases and primer seats have been bored out and destroyed; the entire cavity filled with high tech’ epoxy resin. They cannot fire – OR EVER BE MADE TO DO SO.

By no means a perfect specimen - but a genuine and very attractive antique well over 100 years old and full of character.

As always - No Reserve.

Any questions gladly answered.

Please add £15 for P&P Inc insurance.

© KIRIMON JULY 2008