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WWII French? Handgun

5K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  RJay 
#1 ·
Does anyone know anything about this gun? It is a very small pistol that my grandfather brought home from Germany after WWII. It was recovered from a dead German soldier. It is a 25 cal. Unique brand. Just wondering how old it might be, etc.
 

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#4 ·
Unique was a French firearms manufacturer located near the French border with Spain. Many of their pistols were similar to the simple, inexpensive guns made in the pre-Spanish-Civil-War Eibar region of Spain. This one is one of those. It might have been made any time from about 1920 to about 1940.

This gun is a simplified copy of John Browning's Model 1905 25 caliber automatic. Because German soldiers were hated in most of the countries they occupied, many of their rear-area troops had a 32 or 25 caliber automatic to carry when off duty, if they could get one.

The Uniques are better than the average Eibar automatic in workmanship and material, although the design is still very simple. For example, this gun has a grip safety, which many of the Eibar copies lacked, but it still uses the Eibar type safety/dismantling catch, which only blocks the trigger and does not lock up the firing mechanism. (The presence of the grip safety suggests it might by a 1930's gun rather than a 1920's one; Unique kept improving their guns as time went on.)
 
#7 ·
ALL the guns that used to be made in Spain, were actually made by the Basque community/nation/people living in the Pyrenees Mountain area. Some of those people lived - in their ancestral homeland - in what is now the country of France. They're still Basque.

Eibar is a city in the geo-political confines of the modern recognized country of Spain. All the 'old' gunmakers - Astra, Llama, and Star - were located in this area. The name Gabilando is often connected with this industry. That's the name behind Llama firearms, it is a family name.

Unique pistols were made by - as noted by hrf - "MAPF". MAPF is a French language acronym for the name of the company - in French of course - Manufacture d'Armes des Pyrénées Françaises.
Which roughly translates to Manufacturer of Arms in the French Pyrenees.

From before the time of the Roman Conquest of Iberia, the Basque people were living and carrying on their business of living. When the 'modern' boundaries were drawn up, the Basque people adapted to the point of 'avoiding unneeded contact with the foreign governments. So they more or less obeyed the laws and regulations to placate the various governments. But they stayed in contact with their ethnic brothers and sisters. So the designs are rather similar.

The .25 ACP (or 6.35mm in Europe) has been made since about the Great War. (WWI). The design is probably close to 100 years old. When was YOUR pistol manufactured? Hard to say. Uniques (MAPF) went out of business - I read - in the latter part of the last century. So annual listings by serial number are not readily available.

You might do a web search for either "Unique" or MAPF and turn up some specific collectors. That might be your best bet, but I know of no published book with all that sort of information.

Good luck.
 
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