not all copies were of bad quality, and some were good.
in a german auction i found a really hard to find ANITUA AND CHAROLA copy of the 1873 SAA....very very hard to see here.
it seems that the guards of the BANCO CENTRAL in Madrid carried one of these guns as side arm, along with other long arms.
i have never examined one...thought i dont think quality was excellent. There were more copies from other manufacturers...the main market was probably LATIN AMERICA...where a COLT was extremly expensive....some english markings like COLT SYSTEM´S were included...probably to fool possible buyers into thinking they were buying a true COLT.
Now, something different, an expensive and good gun......a TROCAOLA HERMANOS copy of a SMITH WESSON gold SEAL or Triple Lock, and quality is really good...it was bank proofed, which is a plus, all machining is excellent, as well as finish, mechanism, and shoots like a champ. It belongs to a friend. Caliber is 44 special...and i insist, it was an expensive and well made gun with good steel, hard to distinguish from a SMITH WESSON.
And now the last one, that belongs to me...it is typical modelo 1884 revolver, a more or less close copy of S&W 1881/82 DA model...these ones were patented in 1884 in SPAIN by ORBEA, a manufacturer of good quality arms (i have seen SW RUSSIAN copies almost impossible to distinguish from the american originals, with even same blueing.)...
this gun was officially "recommended" as a personal weapon for officers of the spanish army, who had to buy their own gun, and was used by spanish Guardia CIVIL (rural police) and were sold in quantities to the british army...who accepted most, but rejected some.
the "recommended" were in 11mm calibre, base in the 44 russian, the ones made for BRITISH ARMY, in 455".
ORBEA rennounced to the patent in 1890, so many other manufacturers of good and bad quality begun making copies.
some like ANITUA AND CHAROLA, and TROCAOLA were good...some others were...horrible!
the demand during WW1 from ITALY and FRANCE, and UK (Spain remain neutral and sold guns mainly to the ALLIES) was so huge that a company was formed by several makers to sell them in the conflict...
this one I show was made in 455 caliber for the BRITISH ARMY, (hence the date 1914, that shows it was design to be sold to ALLIES) and probably rejected, then sold in civil market in SPAIN.
rifling is still good...
you may wonder why i dedicate more time to the gun that is supposed to be more "average", but there is an interesting story about it..
it was used in the spanish civil war, by a famous anarchist....
well, most of these guns found today here, were used in CUBA, PUERTO RICO, and in several campaigns in AFRICA, in the spanish collonies, and most were still used in the Spanish Civil War of 1936/39..
all the best