MAUSER IN CHINA

Months ago a friend in china sent me a picture of this Ludwig Loewe made Russian S&W No.3 revolver, which belongs to his college's reference room collection.  This reminds me of some archives I'd read about  China acquisition of Ludwig Loewe manufactured S&W No.3 revolvers.  In 1878, LI Hongzhang asked China Embassy in Berlin to buy 200 pistols for his army. The ambassador visited Ludwig Loewe Company in Berlin twice in 1878, Ludwig Loewe presented Chinese ambassador S&W No.3 revolver which they were producing for Russian contract. A letter from Berlin Embassy to Tianjin Arsenal stated some opinions of the ambassador about the revolver. He said this "very delicate revolver" disassembles into 66 components and does not suit for Chinese soldiers. This letter also mentioned that t he unit price is 60 Marks and Loewe Company had an top break design revolver which costs 42 marks. Li Hongzhang The ambassador sent a broker named Muller from Diers...