This is a 1957 Italian Beretta Model 1935.   The M1935 Model Beretta is a single-action semi-automatic blowback pistol that fires the 7.65mm ammunition. It is made out of carbon steel with plastic grips. It is fitted with a manual safety and when the last shot has been fired the slide is retained open by the empty magazine. The magazine capacity is 7 rounds. As this pistol was built for the Italian army, all parts were interchangeable, which simplified maintenance and manufacturing: a first at the time. No import markings.  (1187)

Pistols made during the Fascist Era are marked with their year of manufacture in two forms: the conventional Julian date in Arabic numerals and the date in the Fascist Era in Roman numerals. The Fascist calendar commenced on 28 October 1922, so a pistol from 1937 May carry either "XV" or "XVI" as its Fascist year.  Post war the actual date was stamped on the frame and no longer on the slide.

In the early 1930s, the Italian army was impressed by the Walther PP pistol. Beretta did not want to lose a big military contract to their German competitor and designed the M1934 for the Italian Army which accepted it in 1937. This model was followed by the M1935, which was similar to the M1934 in most respects, except that it fired a .32 ACP (7.65 mm Browning) cartridge. As this pistol was build for the Italian army, all parts are interchangeable which simplified maintenance and manufacturing, a first at the time.

Beretta is one of the world's oldest corporations, and it has been owned by the same family for some five hundred years. The Beretta company was established in 1526, when gunsmith Maestro Bartolomeo Beretta of Gardone Val Trompia (Brescia, Lombardy, Italy) was paid 296 ducats in payment for 185 arquebus barrels by the Arsenal of Venice. The bills of sale for the order of those firearms are in the firm's archives.

In 1918, the Beretta Model 1918 was the second submachine gun the Italian army fielded. Beretta manufactured rifles and pistols for the Italian military until the 1943 Armistice between Italy and the Allied forces during World War II. With the Wehrmacht's control of northern Italy, the Germans seized Beretta and continued producing arms until the 1945 German surrender in Italy. In that time, the exterior finish of the weapons was much inferior to both the pre-war and mid-war weapons, but their operation remained excellent. The last shipment of Type I rifles left Venice for Japan in a U-boat in 1942.

After World War II, Beretta was actively involved in repairing the American M1 Garands given to Italy by the U.S. Beretta modified the M1 into the Beretta BM-59 rifle, which is similar to the M14 battle rifle; armourers consider the BM-59 rifle superior to the M14 rifle, because it is more accurate.

After the war, Beretta continued to develop firearms for Italian army and police and for civilian market.