Engraved artillery luger
 

I am hoping someone may be able to help me trace the history of my artillery luger. The weapon is engraved and has been reblued. All the parts are not matching. The grips are hard rubber and have a brass overlay, which includes the Nazi eagle and swashtika. The grips appear to have been made to fit the pistol. The clip with the weapon is a Mauser with 1940â??s markings. The plastic end piece is engraved with a fleur-de-lis.
On the left side of the frame are the DWM proof marks and the Army acceptance proof. It is dated, 1917. On the frame are two proofs; crossed pendants with the letter and numbers D, 5, 0 in the quadrants and the second is a crown on top of a circle with the letters BP in the circle. The crossed pendants proof indicates the weapon was a capture weapon or was imported into England. I do not know what the letter â??Dâ?� or the numbers â??5â?� and â??0â?� signify. The second proof is that of the Birmingham Proof House and the circle around the proof was used to indicate a weapon is not English made. I purchased the weapon from a dealer in North Carolina. He indicated he could not supply any past history of the weapon.
My question is, has anyone ever seen a weapon like this one before? I am assuming the weapon was either â??madeâ?� for sale from parts in England then proofed before sale or was a presentation weapon put together during WWII by some level of the German military and was a capture weapon taken to England.

Welcome to the forum.

I noticed there are three common ways to 'promote' a pistol. The most common way is to refurbish it. The 2nd way is to engrave it. The 3rd way is to cut it away to make a arsenal classroom gun. The latter two ways are usually applied on mismatched pistols....the 3rd way is the coolest -- just cut the mismatched number out of the picture :) Both engraving and cut away take lots of effort so they are usually not cheap when you buy them.

The grip panels are very unique.

Van,

I thought for a second you had one of these, but apparently you don't. For a good laugh, check out the photo below. Makes Mitchell look like nothing.....

Van, this LP08 obviously did not leave the factory like this. Without some known provenence it should be looked upon as a fancy shooter and priced as such. It is definitely NOT a collector's item!

It was very popular in the 1970s to create "presentation" Nazi guns. I know of one gun shop in Ohio that turned out several, all based on customer's orders.
Prominent in all these faked presentations is always some Nazi symbol, SS runes, swastikas, etc.
I'll wager this work dates from that era

Probably an Artillery taken to France after 1940 (because of the Fleur-d'-Lys), captured after D-Day, taken to England and proofed. Engraving could be from France, England or the US; I don't know squat about national styles but this one looks unique. The grips were probably done by some French gunsmith during the occupation for 50DM or so.

I have seen that pattern of grip overlay several times in the past years; it is far worse in person than in pix.
Tom A