Buying a customized Harley and then restoring it to stock is nuts, and a waste of money. I will say this situation is the same with this nickle and gold pistol. Attempting to restore it to factory new will be expensive, and no matter how good the restorer, it will never be new again.
Obviously someone wanted a showy pistol, and their taste tended to the extravagant and glam.
As for shooting, all depends on the mechanical condition of the piece. You will find that blued pistols, later nickled or chromed, have issues. Factory pistols that were nickled started out with slightly larger cylinder slots, etc, because nickle plating fills in the holes. Might have cylinder over rides, timing issues. These things have to be examined in person. But, if it checked out, shooting it means light loads. These WW1 era S&W's were made out of plain carbon steels and they were not heat treated. The steels of the day had lots of random amounts of residual elements which unpredictably weakened the steel. These residual elements were all non oxidizable elements such as copper, nickle, vanadium, tungsten, etc, elements that would not burn out during smelting. Due to the inconsistency of period metallurgy, these things sometime just fail.
Found some neat pictures of a 1935 FN Belgium Military Mauser kaboom on this french gunforum page.
Mauser belge Kaboom
The translation of the OP's post is:
His Belgian mauser of 1935 exploded at the level of the affraid chamber it was not a bullet stuck in the barrel, not a cartridge reloaded too hard, no, just a weapon whose steel had decided that it was the blow too much Evil or Very Mad My friend escapes unscathed left for a good fright.
a follow on poster correctly identified the most likely cause of the chamber failure (again google translate )
It's called metal fatigue, it's best known in aviation. It should also be noted that the steels of those years are less elaborate and refined than those of today, there are a lot of impurities, especially residues of other soft metals. From the danger of old weapons: always be wary of them, observe if nothing moves after each shooting session, a digital caliper, a notebook and take notes on the most sensitive points, as here the Ø outside the room.
Now yes, Elmer Keith was shooting hot loads in these things when they were "new". Elmer was experimenting well before Mr Casull or Freedom Arms began making tool steel models of Colt SAA's. Elmer also had a number of blown top strap stories, and if he shot the timing out of a S&W or Colt the cost of a replacement was a lot less than today.
Understand the limitations of relics, especially those that have been through a lot of hands.