Orbea Hermanos 1920's Vintage Revolvers and Firearms Import Regulation

[dalbert]

I'm writing a chapter for a book about Chinese Nationalist procurement of firearms from the U.S. between 1921-23. In 2009, I acquired over 100 documents from that time period which documented procurement and export of Thompson Submachine Guns, Broomhandle Mausers, and hundreds of Orbea Hermanos S&W copy revolvers, among other very interesting items to export to Nationalist China to combat Chinese warlords. Many of the guns provided samples which were subsequently copied and morphed by the Chinese. 

Anyway, during my research, I sorta re-discovered one of the earliest firearm importation regulatory efforts in our nation's history. On March 27, 1922, Judge Learned Hand ruled for Smith and Wesson against Orbea Hermanos of Eibar, Spain for unfair trade practices, issuing a temporary injunction which subsequently turned into a permanent injunction. To quickly summarize, Orbea had been marking their pistols to resemble S&W M&P revolvers, and at a glance, they fooled many buyers to the tune of hundreds of thousands of lost sales to S&W. Orbea fakes were $12 to S&W's $24 at the time. I am summarizing greatly in this post, and trust me, there's a lot more to the story.

My question to those who read this post is as follows:

Do you have an Orbea Hermanos revolver that resembles a S&W M&P, with markings almost the same? Or, do you have an Orbea revolver with gold lettering?

Orbea got past the injunction later in 1922 when they began to highlight their country of origin in gold lettering. Previously, as part of the ruse to fool American buyers, their markings highlighted the "Smith and Wesson" in ".38 Smith & Wesson" caliber. Anyway, I'm looking for examples of pre and post injunction Orbea Hermanos M&P style revolvers of early 1920's vintage. I want to compare photographs, and I'm also interested in acquiring examples of these pistols for my collection, even though they are of substandard quality. My research has led me down a fascinating path, and now I want some examples for myself, lol.

Thanks in Advance,

David Albert