Persian 4" Mauser Luger
 

I thought this was a good variation to discuss.. these photos are from one that is currently for sale (not mine, nor anyone i know, nor am I endorsing the sale of this pistol).. unfortunately or fortunately it has been restored. :evilgrin:

These Iranian/Persian commercial contract Lugers were produced under two separate commercial contracts, one in 1936 and the second one in 1942, with 1,000 pistols ordered in each contract and were made up with both short and long artillery barrel length Luger pistols. These are an extremely rare Luger as almost NO examples were ever released by the Government of Iran.

...a few more pictures

All the serial numbers and numbering throughout the gun are in Farsi..the numbers appear to be all matching with SN 1131-E

Very interesting. Thank you for the lesson , Maestro.
dju

Originally the Islamic countries operated from a lunar calendar begun with the flight of Mohamed from Mecca to Medina in 622. Persia in an effort to modernize adopted the solar calendar (365 days/yr) in the 1920 but adopted the flight of Mohamed as year one. Therefore, it is believed, that the inscription in Farsi on the right of the receiver reads 1314 but one must add 621 (yrs) to that number to achieve the Model 1935.

...however, according for Member LU1900 from France:

Persian 4" Mauser Luger Cut-Away
 

...and finally to complete my post for your opinions.. this one too has been refinished, with a very low SN 11 :burnout:

With this one being a cutaway example it is estimated that probably no more than 20-30 total were ever produced with this one falling early in the first production. As noted on all Iranian contract Lugers, the markings are all in Farsi and this one is the same, except that there is no Iranian coat of arms on the top of the chamber area as most of that was sectioned anyway, and then obviously it has been cutaway in various areas to show the complete inner workings of the pistol. In all there are 22 different windows cutaway on both sides of the pistol which show how all the parts interface and function together. All the various parts are correctly marked with the Farsi symbols for serial number 11.

:typing:I am curious to hear from members in regards to:
1. Would an advanced collector be interested in this professionally refinished pistol?
2. Would a cut-away add to the value and rarity of this pistol?
3. Price value you would personally place on these two pistols?
Kind regards,
Darius
p.s. you can see where I'm going with this being my next obsession :evilgrin:

:_otopic:
its taller cousin the K98 Mauser:evilgrin:

Persian 4" Mauser Luger Cutaway
 

here's another brilliant example sold... appears to be SN 28.

An Herculean report, for a guy who joined this month...!

I'll bet any collector would like to have these pieces (for the right price--"right" being relative term). The idea is to collect the best examples in your area of interest. The market determines the price, and any gun is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it, at that time. The cutaway is probably going to be darned expensive--one of however few stamped in Farsi. I'd say that's pretty rare, presuming their authenticity. But without someone who wants to collect it, it"d be worthless. So, I'd buy it, if I could afford it. Then, when another one came along, all original and minty, what to do? Well, gotta have that one, too!:roflmao:

thank you David, I hear you loud and clear brother..
I'll finish off tonight before my Ambien kicks in an I get all screwy here,and leave you all here with the Persian artillery Luger..

Here the cutaway sn22 with a "G" recever
http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/16/71/17/04/00910.jpg

And two differents recever from 4" :

Hi Darius, Thanks for that very interesting exposition. Do you happen to know which kind of units were issued the P08s, and which the LP08s?
Regards, Norm

The Persian Contract
 

Darius,

Nice work!

This thread on the other site may also be of interest.

http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...hlight=persian

BTW, a letter from Dr. Gminder in my files confirms that 50 cutaways were produced. Mine is SN 37.

Enjoy,

John

another one.
http://www.adamsguns.com/luger.htm

Nice link Ben,
in case it disappears, here's a few excerpts:

..thanks, here's some excerpts:

Replies:
lastly,

Those Persian stuff are cool. Acquired a Persian C96 earlier in the year. Don't know who imported them into the U.S., no importer stamp. The seller had two for sale, another one was actually a few percent better in blue, but the muzzle was marred. Plus and minus, two were comparable. We did not learn how to share among us -- a few guys rushed to this, cost me "legs and arms" (just learned, like drawing a picture :(:)). Nevertheless, Persia was an interesting country, and had some interesting guns.

wow.. very cool indeed.. i had to post this picture of aC96 :evilgrin:

That must come from Mauser's glass photograph. That's not Persian. It's even rarer -- an Ottoman Empire Conehammer. The performance of this customer was far away from top in the 19th and 20th century, but this was the same empire that finished 1100-year-old Byzantine Empire in the middle of 15th century, just a few decades before Columbus found America. Long history. Not many collectors have this gun. I don't. Maybe can find one in future, maybe not affordable, maybe in too poor shape, maybe... rare item, so lots of uncertainties.

Alvin
Was the Turkish cone hammer a actual Mauser contract?
How many were made?
Bob

It must be a contract. The gun is separately numbered. Markings are in Farsi. Mauser Archive says 1000 C96 pistols and ammunition were bought by Turkish in 1898.

In production volume, Turkish is not more rare than Persian. But it's way harder to wait a Turkish in OK shape.

Here's a very interesting Persian Artillery Luger I came across

i guess the engraving was done in the 70's?

..it is very cool looking though :evilgrin:

How much is the asking price of this engraved gun?

A very scholarly, well presented and fascinating work. I think it deserves a sticky as a reference source.

I'm also sure you will be expanding it as it is obvious you have a love for this contract--and understandably so.

Your original questions are more difficult to address with any certainty. As stated above value on specialties is.. well, special. The reworked piece will turn some collectors off. Their value of the piece will reflect that. The guy next to him would LOVE to have it (me) despite that. For the person buying with an eye to the future for resale value original always has a larger market and reworks are a calculated risk.

For the collector that collects for the internal satisfaction of having something he is proud of, it should not matter greatly what the market or critics think-after all the executor of your estate is the one that will have to figure it all out.

Just the .02 of a "brainless" (because I shoot matched Navy Lugers) old collector.

Gary

Alvin, I'm not aware of the pistol to be for sale. This one particular Luger was a thread that was written in 2010 that I came across as I was researching more regards to this particular contract as Gary states very well in his quote above.

Apparently, this Luger may have been the heirloom, passed from father to son, engraved by "E.Dupont"; other believe
the following picture is another i found, however, not certain if its Persian Contract or not; maybe just engraved Luger. :cheers:

I agree with Gary. Myself, personally, if this was around I'd love to have it :cheers:

Well I would say it's quite an oustandingly interesting report; still I'm afraid I'm some sort of "Luger integralist", as I would prefer our "Lugers" the way they originally are: beautiful weapons.

I had an engraved Luger some years ago. It was a 4" Erfurt beautifully engraved and coated with silver. Acquired from a local store. Later learned from others saying that it's not a collectible. But it's a pretty gun, way cheaper than factory work, and there are some collectors buying them, the Erfurt was sold easily via another dealer.

While down in Argentina some years ago I saw several, different WW2 era German presentation pistols. I wrote down the names engraved on each pistol and they all turned out to be bona fide Nazi personalities. Not all engraved presentation guns are post war.

Maestro,
That last engraved "Luger" is a toy. I think it sometimes came as a set with a mounting plaque labled "Bio Hazard" that may have been associated with a TV show or video game (not really up on these things :)). It was modeled to look very similar to one of the authentic Krieghoff presentation guns.

Probably for the "purist" there is little or no difference between engraving and refinishing. I can respect that and agree there is a beauty in a Luger that has never been matched by any other handgun. Put it side by side with any other and, in almost all cases, we have the beauty and the beast.

I do believe, however, that not a single one of us would refuse to add one of the engraved Krieghoff's to our collection if we could swing it.

I admit, that is somewhat an apples and oranges thing though because there is a lot of difference between something being a historical presentation piece verses being "decorated".

I will look forward to seeing what Maestro digs up on this beautiful Luger as I am sure he will not let it rest in mystery.

Gary

i'm going off topic as far as the Persian contract Lugers, etc.. however, worthy of mentioning since it was brought up.. here's a remarkable example that fetched $74,750 :bowdown: in December 2010. :thumbsup: I love the fact that even the screws are engraved! such attention to detail :thumbup:

and for the Krieghoff collectors, one of my favorites :cheers:

sold for $69,000 May 2011 :bowdown:

..lastly, i think this is a well written article for those that want to learn more regarding "engraved" Lugers by Klaus Leibnitz called "Collecting engraved Luger Pistols or caveat emptor!" www.leibnitz-online.de/resources/Faked_Luger_Pistols_17.09.04-1.pdf‎
here's a few excerpts: