What can you tell me about this pistol?

Glock23Expert

I found this pistol in a pawn shop. Pawn shop owner didn't know what kind of pistol it is. In case the pics aren't clear, the markings on the slide are "765 1914 Automatic Pistol". Under that is "Liberty Patent". The butt of the pistol says "made in Spain" very small. I'm not sure if it's sporting the original stocks, but the ones it has appear to be something like Bakelite. It's missing a grips screw. Can anyone tell me anything about this pistol?

rufe-snow

It's what is known as a "Ruby Type" pistol.The same general design were made by many Spanish manufacturers. Starting as military contract pistols during World War One, and continuing for commercial sale into the 1920's.

Your pistol is attributed to Spanish manufacturers known as the Retolaza Brothers, located in Eibar Spain.

It's chambered for the common .32 auto cartridge.

Unfortunately there is little collecter demand/value for the "Ruby Type" pistols at this time. My 2?, is that your pistol would be in the $50 - $150 range.

nononsense

Glock23Expert,

This is an excerpt from a website devoted to these Spanish pistols. The term 765 is the metric equivalent of the .32 ACP. I attempted to correct some of the mistakes in this but I gave up.

"In the first wold war, the french army underwent many human and material losses, at the beginning of the war, between 1914 and principles of 1915.

This forced to the military administrations to look for a "pistol of foreign manufacture" to reequip its troops. So that the three government arms factories of France, (MAS, MAC and MAT) made an effort mainly, in making rifles and machine guns for the war.
The north of France, the most industrialized region of the country, fell under the German occupation, then France looked for in Spain a solution to this problem.

Spain, had then, gun factories in the north of the Basques.
It was the way simplest to make "generica" automatic pistol RUBI CAL 7, 65 mm for military use common in Europe

Design

The automatic pistol 7.65 mm "Ruby", is simply a copy of Browning 1903, constructed by it "Fabrique Nationale" of Belgium, was simple to make and had a relatively low economic cost.

The trademark chosse

A French Comission board chooses to "Gabilondo and Urresti-Eibar" company to make the pistol, the production began in 1914, according to contract.

The contract specified, that the manufacture would be of 10,000 monthly pistols, fixing the month of beginning of delivery to August of 1915 .Later the monthly amount rose possibly to 30,000 units.
The Gabilondo and Urresti-Eibar factory , considered, that was a too numerous order, for its capacity of production, and beginning the managements to obtain the cooperation of other factories of Eibar, so subcontracted more than thirty factories of the city to help them in the production of RUBI pistol.

All "RUBI" pistols, were sent to Bayonne, (MAB), where they were examined and from sent there to the different units. Like curiosity, although many of you make Spaniards were small factories, very few pistols were given back by tecnicos failures."

http://republicanos.bravehost.com/rubienglish.html

Best.

ADDED:

This website has assembly/disassembly instructions:

http://www.reenactor.net/units/151ri/weps/ruby_pistol.html

Bill DeShivs

The grips are made from buffalo horn, and are hand carved.
Bill

v35

It's a Ruby but not a jewel.

Glock23Expert

Thank you guys for all the info, I appreciate it. Yes, I bought it and a nylon holster for $50, so I feel that I did OK.