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MAPF, Manufacture d’Armes de Pyrenees, France. This factory was located in Hendaye, on the border of France The connection between the gun makers of the Pyrenees Mountain area of both France and Spain were and are Basques. They have their own culture, language (with no known connections to any other language on Earth) and they were there with their cultural connections before anyone else drew up 'legal borders'. As it happened, some Basques were 'deemed' to be in French territory and some 'deemed' in Spanish territory. At some point, they were told they could no longer do what they always did without permission from the governments, as applicable. They didn’t take this so well and just ignored it. Of note to this discussion, the 'French' side became Unique (MAPF), while the 'Spanish' side became Astra, Llama, Star and others. This small single action pistol was manufactured from 1923 and has continued till the present day. It has been manufactured under 27 different trade names before 1939, the principle one being Unique. These name were not used since then. The names are peculiar to a particular dealer or market. It use blow back operation but with a hammer, and not the usual striker like with the many Browning copies. The dis-assembly protocol is then also different to the Brownings and copies. The swivel link safety catch blocks the trigger link to the sear and the magazine latch is located low on the side of the grip like the early Berettas. (Ref. ‘Pistols and revolvers’ by JE Smith, ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p183)

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