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This pistol was designed by John Moses Browning in 1905. More than 1.5 million were made so it was of good quality and very popular. The design was copied by numerous gunmakers.

FN introduced the revolutionary model 1905 in 1905. Despite the name FN used for this pistol, it was later marketed as the "M1906", the "V.P. .25" (V.P. denoting Vest Pocket), and most confusingly, the "Baby" model. This pistol was introduced more or less at the same time the 6.35x16mm .25 ACP cartridge became widely available. The term "ACP" stands for "Automatic Colt Pistol". This cartridge was among the first automatic pistol cartridges to be utilized worldwide. It was designed with a "semi-rimmed" shell casing made of brass. The rim of the shell casing had a slightly larger circumference than the base of the cartridge and an extractor groove was cut directly above it. The shell casing head was spaced on this small rim; however, the utilization of the rim in this design complicated the mechanics of the cartridge because, while still in the magazine, the rim of one cartridge would sometimes get hung up on the extractor groove of the following cartridge (also known as "rim lock").

The M1905/M1906 Vest Pocket pistol incorporated a grip safety mechanism that constituted the entire rear section of the grip. This particular safety mechanism required a significant amount of hand palm pressure to disengage and allow the trigger to release the striker to fire the pistol. Colt produced a nearly identical pocket pistol, the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket, which incorporated a small safety lever on the left side of the receiver which locked the trigger. In addition, this safety lever mechanism locked the slide about a half inch back from the front of the pistol to enable easy disassembly. FN also added this safety lever mechanism to its pistol, but did not add the magazine safety mechanism that Colt introduced in 1916.
Pressured by dozens of imitations and the proliferation of blatant unlicensed copies, FN began work in earnest on a successor product to the Model 1908 Vest Pocket pistol. The basic Vest Pocket pistol design was used as a starting point for the new design. Dieudonné Saive (who would later design the Browning Hi-Power pistol and FN FAL rifle) was asked during 1926-1927 to design the new pistol. His design was smaller, lighter, and incorporated several refinements and improvements to the M1908 (Baby Browning) version.

A scaled-down version of the 9mm Browning Model 1903, this pistol was a single action, striker fired, blow-back action.  It was chambered for a specially designed 6.35mm (.25 inch) cartridge. The pistol was an immediate success, selling in huge quantities. The pistol was manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal from 1906 to 1959.. It was also widely copied and the 6.35mm cartridge became the standard ammunition for similar 'vest-pocket' pistols. Although such pistols had little military value, they were occasionally carried on active service by men who had privately purchased them. With a 2-inch barrel, these guns went just over 4.5-inches overall, making them easy to stash in a coat pocket of the day.

The Model 1905 was used by the Belgian Resistance in 1943 in the Attack on the twentieth convoy, in which more than 100 jews were saved from a Holocaust train transporting them to Auschwitz concentration camp.
(Ref: Small Arms of the World, by EC Ezell, Dictionary of guns and gunmakers by John Walter, Pistols of the world by Hogg and Weeks, https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/FN_Baby_Browning.html , https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30030165 , www.fn-browning.com/fn.htm , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_M1905 , https://www.guns.com/news/2018/12/26/from-the-gdc-warehouse-the-super-compact-baby-browning-photos )
De Wilde Firearms
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