Beschreibung:

.32 cal., 3" barrel, no serial number. Prototype, no markings. Finished in the white with black grips. Includes eight mechanical drawings used to build the pistol from 1917, seven mechanical drawings from 1916 and likely the original "Draft drawings" for the prototype pistol. In addition there are three original granted patent letters for: Firing Mechanism, Breech-Loading Firearms, Reloading Mechanism For Magazine-Firearms. ELBERT HAMILTON SEARLE, remembered by his grandchildren: On March 13, 1865, some two weeks before Robert E. Lee surrendered his forces at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, our grandfather, Elbert Hamilton Searle, was born in East Hampton, Massachusetts, into an industrialized culture forced by the War to be the zenith of 'modern' ordnances and gunnery. Invention, innovation, and devotion to craft were to be the watch-words of Searle's professional life. How he became so entranced with firearms we do not know. What we do know is that prior to WW1 he traveled to Berlin, Germany, to file European patents for designs of his making, and became hopelessly enamored with a young office clerk named Elizabeth Fix. He managed to persuade her to relocate to Los Angeles, California, settling in Ocean Park, a suburb of breezy, sun-lit Santa Monica. Our mother, Marguerite, their only child, was born in 1912. Grandfather was singularly involved in the design and development of the Savage Model 1907 semi-automatic pistol, which went on to become one of the most successful personal defense weapons of its time. His resume then became somewhat unclear. But evidence points to continuing independent design work for both the Savage Arms Company and the U.S. War Department. Beginning in 1916 and 1917 in Los Angeles California, Searle designed a revolutionary semi-automatic pistol, in .32 and .380 caliber. It was small, had a strikingly modern profile, and allowed one-handed locking and unlocking of the magazine. More importantly, it featured one-handed cocking. These three functions were controlled by an action bolt accessible to the shooter's finger. The prototype for this pistol was possibly made in Los Angeles, but more likely back East between 1917 and 1918. In 1918 and 1919, while Grandmother and Mother were still living in Ocean Park, Grandfather was, for protracted periods of time, working in Utica, New York and Hartford and Bridgeport Connecticut, both hot-beds for contemporary arms development. He was working for the War Department Ordnance Office in Bridgeport, while also working on something else. Since the patent for the prototype .32 was filed in July of 1918, and addendum patents filed in 1919, we think it's likely he was working on the prototype. His surviving letters to his wife and daughter during this period are filled with warmth, humor and ambition. One such missive is dated January 29, 1919 on War Department stationary. "I have a sneaking desire to build an aircraft machine gun", he wrote. "There is a big opportunity if we can bring out a gun with a speed of about 2000 shots per minute . . . I have learned a lot about the private lives of machine guns since I came here . . . I am greatly tempted to try it! You see, I cannot help it my Dearest. It is in the blood." Perhaps Searle's revolutionary .32/.380 semi automatic pistol proved too complex to manufacture profitably, or maybe he sold the patent to what remained of Savage Arms or another company. But at the age of fifty-four, our grandfather returned to California and transplanted his family north to the Sacramento River delta and began a new life as a rice farmer, trading machined steel for green grasses. He went on to design and construct instruments at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He died on May 7, 1936 of heart disease. Elbert Searle was the epitome of an 'old-school' craftsman, dedicated to the transcendence of cutting-edge, exquisitely finished work. Although my brother and I never had the honor of meeting him, we continue to feel