Ludwig Loewe manufactured S&W No.3 Revolver to 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 the 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&Co to make a deal with Ludwig Loewe&Co. In the end Chinese paid 50 marks each to purchase 200 Ludwig Loewe made S&W No.3 revolvers in May 1879. The contract total valued in 10777.6 Marks which including transportation and insurance fees.  Ammunition were bought from U.S instead.

The contract stipulated that Chinese inspector will inspect the quality before shipment and the revolvers shall be stamped with SN from 1 to 200. For unknown reason Loewe company did not notice Chinese as the revolvers were ready. In September the dealer told Chinese ambassador that Ludwig Loewe Co. had already sent the revolvers to Hamburg for shipment to China. In a document of Tianjin Arsenal dated May 1880 the revolvers were reportedly delivered in Tianjin.   

Chinese inspector did not check the revolvers, therefore I am able to know if Ludwig Loewe Company stamped requested SN on these revolvers. I guess probably because of the small size of Chinese contract and don't want to be bothered, they just picked 200 finished Russian contract revolvers with all Russian markings on to fulfill Chinese. That's the reason why Ludwig Loewe&Co shipped revolvers without notifying Chinese to do the inspection. 

Russian markings and SN33570 on top of barrel

This violation of contract pissed Chinese a little bit off, and they sent their dealer to make a settlement with Ludwig Loewe&Co. But Chinese did not leave any information of final results.  

Even as China acquiring revolvers from Ludwig Loewe&Co. the company was making a bolt action trial rifle per request from China(I will discuss it latter on). Chinese was trying to build a good relation with LUDW Loewe&Co at the period. Ludwig Loewe personally sent a revolver to Li Hongzhang as a gift after the revolver contract was signed. In return, the ambassador gave Ludwig Loewe's wife a piece of Chinese red silk.

I cannot tell if this Russian S&W No.3 in the picture is a Russian surplus sold to China years later or we are lucky enough to have one of Chinese contract revolvers. If anyone who has knowledge of Russian contract would like to share, it would be very kind.