Reply With QuoteThe Johnson Smith catalogue is very interesting, as there is currently a gap in our knowledge about Haenel air pistols for the year 1929. German, British and American catalogues which cover these pistols are known for 1927 and 1928, as are many for the 1930’s, but for some reason 1929 has always been lacking. This has obscured the early history of the Haenel air pistols, and so this catalogue throws valuable new information into the mix.
Unfortunately the Johnson Smith catalogue entry is misleading in some respects, and the first error which Danny has already pointed out is the wrong illustration for the Haenel 28-R. Also confusing is the single shot pistol listed as the “Haenel Super Air Pistol”. The pistol illustrated is quite clearly the Haenel 26, and yet if you read the description one would think it was the Model 28, as it says “made of the finest steel , blued finish…”, whereas the Model 26 is constructed mainly of zinc alloy and is black painted. However, this must just be poetic licence as the quoted weight for the gun (1.5 lbs) and its low price clearly indicates that it is indeed the Model 26. This is very interesting, as the earliest date for the Model 26 was previously 1930, and so this tells us that it was on the market in 1929, and could even have been introduced as early as 1928.
The 1929 date for the Haenel 28-R is also earlier than expected.
The fact that the catalogue makes no mention of the model designations “26”, “28” or “28-R” is valuable, as current thinking is already that these numbers may not have been introduced officially by Haenel until the guns had been on the market until about 1930. We know from catalogues that the very first pistol came onto the market in 1927, and it was then called the Haenel 27. Catalogue illustrations and descriptions show that this almost mythological model was constructionally quite different from both the Haenel 26 and 28 pistols. Not as heavy as the 28 and heavier than the 26, it also had a plastic rather than walnut grip plates. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...psgjdrwtbp.jpg
Catalogues then show us that within a year the Model 27 was no longer available. The closely related classic Model 28 design now appeared, but it was not marketed as the 28, just simply as the “Haenel Air Pistol”. These early guns were stamped with this name without the 28 model number designation. Although rarer than the guns marked Haenel 28, they do turn up fairly regularly, and on occasion they have been mistakenly considered to be Haenel 27’s, which they are not. Unfortunately no confirmed example of the Haenel 27 has ever been reported.
So it seems that Haenel introduced Schmeisser’s design in 1927, as the Haenel 27, naming it after the year of introduction. This pistol presumably evolved a year later into two new forms, the slightly better quality Model 28, and a low-end of the market version, the Model 26. However, neither pistol was assigned a model number at this point. It seems that the decision to use these model numbers was taken in about 1930, as catalogue entries from that year are known which show the pistol both with and without these model numbers.
The only missing pieces of the jigsaw are an actual example of the Haenel 27, and an early example of the Haenel 26 which is not stamped with its model number.
Any information about either of these would be greatly appreciated!
Originally Posted by 45flint
