Is there, or was there ever, a factory rifle chambering of a rimmed version of the 257 Roberts?

Not that I know of; most all that bore size rimmed cartridges are in Europe and the 25 caliber was ignored there, mostly.
But it would be a no brainier to make one; use 7mm rimmed brass. Same chamber as the rimless one.

I tried making a .257R once from 7x57R brass. Did not work. 7x57R cases are several thousandth larger in the head, and at least with my dies and chamber, the cases could not be sized enough to work.

Thanks guys. I saw a 1939 Remo Kipplauf in 25-35 on the net. It made me wonder if such a rifle might have been chambered in a faster 25 bore.

I have a 257 Roberts rimmed in a No. 1 Mk111 Enfield. It was chambered for me by a gunsmith friend of mine by the name of Larry Sims ( unfortunately now deceased ) who had a special vice type sizing die made for it by Bill Marden here in Australia.
A standard 257 Rob. reamer was used to cut the chamber . I also have a 7x57 rimmed in a similar rifle, both rifles load and feed without any modifications.
The only caveat is that you handload to suit the strength of the action.

Roger

you can trim the seater and that allows you to use 7x57 rimmed brass or it did on the one and only one Ive ever seen and it was a European single shot of some sort with a douglas barrel at a turkey shoot and he had the gun for sale...

Ive seen a couple of ss in the European version of the 25-35 Win. and a few in 94 Win..The European version of the 25-35 is not the same case demensions as the 25-35 and tends to split half the cases in a box of 20 shot in a 94....fireformed with either case, the improved version didn't have that problem Im told by the owner, but find that suspecious in that fireforming the 25-35 factory ammo in a mod. 94 IMP ruins a high percentage of cases, so I used 30-30 brass to make 25-35s and 25-35 Ackley IMP..and that works fine. Factory stuff is poor brass for reasons unbeknown to me, but it is..

At any rate my 257 SS on a Ruger #3 was a 25-35 IMP and it duplecated the factory 257 Roberts with ease. It was also a royal pain in the ass,but accurate as could be...