What is the highest serial number seen on a Tell Model 3 pistol?

[45flint]

The highest I saw on line was a gun sold on this website: 820.

[ccdjg]

The highest I saw on line was a gun sold on this website: 820.

There was a thread on this very question a few years ago, but unfortunately I have not been able to find it. For some reason the forum search engine refuses to regard 'Tell 3' as one phrase and searches for 'Tell' and and '3' separately, and concludes that these search terms are too common to initiate the search. If you put "Tell 3" in inverted commas, it takes this too literally and comes up with no hits. Anybody know how to get round this problem?

Fortunately I did make a note of the conclusions of the thread, and at the time (2014) the highest reported serial number was 774, and a total production number of about 800 was guessed at. I don't recall the serial number 820 pistol being sold on this website, and this pushes the production run even higher. Do you have a link to the sale?

[Garvin]

There was a thread on this very question a few years ago, but unfortunately I have not been able to find it. For some reason the forum search engine refuses to regard 'Tell 3' as one phrase and searches for 'Tell' and and '3' separately, and concludes that these search terms are too common to initiate the search. If you put "Tell 3" in inverted commas, it takes this too literally and comes up with no hits. Anybody know how to get round this problem?

Fortunately I did make a note of the conclusions of the thread, and at the time (2014) the highest reported serial number was 774, and a total production number of about 800 was guessed at. I don't recall the serial number 820 pistol being sold on this website, and this pushes the production run even higher. Do you have a link to the sale?

John I did a search for Tell* and got this:

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....t=Tell*+serial

It mentions Tell 3 serial no. 822.

[45flint]

There was a thread on this very question a few years ago, but unfortunately I have not been able to find it. For some reason the forum search engine refuses to regard 'Tell 3' as one phrase and searches for 'Tell' and and '3' separately, and concludes that these search terms are too common to initiate the search. If you put "Tell 3" in inverted commas, it takes this too literally and comes up with no hits. Anybody know how to get round this problem?

Fortunately I did make a note of the conclusions of the thread, and at the time (2014) the highest reported serial number was 774, and a total production number of about 800 was guessed at. I don't recall the serial number 820 pistol being sold on this website, and this pushes the production run even higher. Do you have a link to the sale?

Here is link to the sale of 820:
http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....L-3-air-pistol

[45flint]

Interesting no one has created a resistry of the current serial numbers accounted for. Over here a Sheridan collector has a registry for the rare Super Grade rifles that were manufactured for only a few years. The Tell 3 would present unique challenges given the collector base is probably so geographically diverse. I'm assuming the ones over here may have been War bringbacks?

There have been two I have seen for sale this month over here, the first I didn't want to run up cause it was said not to fire well and it seemed a bit ruff. The second about a week later is the one I bought.

[draitzer]

Shucks Steve, if you had gotten them both you coulda swapped grips and sold off the weak shooter!

[45flint]

Shucks Steve, if you had gotten them both you coulda swapped grips and sold off the weak shooter!

The same fellow that bought the first Tell 3 was the other guy after the one I bought, maybe with that idea in mind?

[ccdjg]

John I did a search for Tell* and got this:

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....t=Tell*+serial

It mentions Tell 3 serial no. 822.

Thanks Danny. I knew there must be some way round this problem.

[Buck25]

A boxed Tell 3 serial #926 sold in April 2017 for 1,300 pounds

http://auctions.holtsauctioneers.com...refno=++111038

Prior to this, the highest number I had seen was #871 back in 2013.

[Mark D]

I see that Holts reckon only 50 made ? Is that about right,or are they just driving up the bidding with that figure.

[Garvin]

I see that Holts reckon only 50 made ? Is that about right,or are they just driving up the bidding with that figure.

That's what people thought quite a while ago - the number of Tell 3s that have come to light in recent years makes this number seem highly unlikely.

It's like the Falke 80/90, which in good faith were thought to total 400 and 200 respectively, but these numbers are looking unlikely.

[45flint]

Very little question that at least 900 were made serial numbers don't lie but given the short run I would imagine most of these were sold in Germany. How many survived a very distructive war? Haenel's on the other hand were exported for 10 years before the war. That said, I have seen 3 Tell 3s sell in US this year. All with good amount of ware. Higher prices have a way of pulling out guns hidden for years.

[Garvin]

Very little question that at least 900 were made serial numbers don't lie but given the short run I would imagine most of these were sold in Germany. How many survived a very distructive war? Haenel's on the other hand were exported for 10 years before the war. That said, I have seen 3 Tell 3s sell in US this year. All with good amount of ware. Higher prices have a way of pulling out guns hidden for years.

You're right that high prices pull guns out of the woodwork. But you need to be very careful with numbers. For example, I'm no longer convinced the numbers stamped on the Falke underlevers are serial numbers at all because so many duplicates have turned up. I think they might have been a way of making sure the loading taps were mated with the correct barrel/cylinder assemblies - a type of 'makers' mark'.

And even with true serial numbers, the sequence sometimes doesn't start at 1 (ie the FWB match guns) - although Mick has a Tell 3 with no. 4 stamped on it, so the Tell 3s probably did start at 1.

[Mark D]

I see that the Tell 3 on egun without it's box made 2000 euros. The box got pulled, so maybe a direct deal, what a shame to split them,if they started out together.

[ccdjg]

If you want really rare, what about the post-war Tell 3 that was resurrected in the early 1950's by Manteuffel in East Germany. Has anyone actually seen an example of one of these? I have never heard of one. A Manteuffel catalogue image shows the gun to be identical to the Tell 3 but with the grip medallions removed. I have no idea what the serial number situation would have been with these, but is unlikely to have followed on from the pre-war series.