WWI Turkish Holsters
 

Dear fellows,
Among the rarest holsters that can be found for the Imperial Artillery Luger, the Turkish variation is for sure one of the most interesting.
A long tradition starting from Paul Mauser links the Ottoman Empire with Germany weapon factories.

The LP08 was used in Turkey during WWI as proofed by historical pictures. One of the pictures I like more is the following where you can see Enver Pasha firing with his LP08.

Years ago I was lucky enough to buy on of this holster that is well described in my web site. This holster is well known because has been described in several articles.

Personally I have not seen any other Turkish holster until a few weeks ago when a second one resurfaced in Turkey with the related LP08.

A Turkish collector friend of mine inform me about this discover and I had the possibility of buying it.

You can notice some familiarities between the two holsters although the last discovered shown a higher level of workmanship.

Both holsters have a high quality but the decorations of the recent holster are really nice.

They are two rare items…

Enver Pasha firing with his LP08:
Attachment 16945


Front view of the two Holsters, the bottom one is the recently discovered:
Attachment 16954

Back view of the two holsters:
Attachment 16955

Closeup photo of the holster found a few years ago:
Attachment 16956

Closeup photos of the nice decorations applied to the recently discovered holster:
Attachment 16957

Attachment 16958

Attachment 16959

Attachment 16960

Attachment 16961

Great holsters, Mauro. Thanks for posting. These certainly didn't come from DWM! It's wonderful to see the local hand crafted tooling on them. Truly heirlooms!

Mauro..Very nice find! The first holster..Does not appear to have a belt loop?

Jerry Burney

Hi Jerry,
Yes originally he had a belt loop but it has been removed...

Mauro, Great acquisition, thank you for sharing.
Alf.

Very interesting, Mauro.
Thanks for sharing.

Hello Mauro,

I am glad to meet you here in this forum again.

It seems the last holster is the one I gave to you. I am very happy that it found a great place at a real collectors nest.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...y/P1170411.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...y/P1170407.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...y/P1170414.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...y/P1170417.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...y/P1170416.jpg

PS: I am sorry that I couldn't upload the photos to Lugerforum directly but I have copied, again, the links from Photobucket. I carried already uploaded photos from our Turkish forum tabancatufek.com to Lugerforum in a hurry. I hope you can enjoy them nevertheless.

Hello Evren,
Yes, your nice holster is now part of my holster collection - I am very happy to have two Turkish Artillery Holsters.

Cheers,
Mauro

I appreciate a glimpse of a different holster design, one that is not as clunky looking as the classic P.08 hardshell. I'll ask what the texture/hardness of the leather is with these two Turks; it appears softer than the German standard?

Since an accomplished leather worker lives on premesis, I'm going to have him make one for me, so I'm always grateful for photographs of these variations in design, as inspirations for the eventual project of creating a custom holster for my own LP.08.

David Parker

Dear David,

my, now Mauro's, Turkish leather holster was made of a sort of leather called "without salt leather". This means they didn't use salt to condition the leather in order to prevent the metal from corrosion.
It is really very soft and I mean it.

Since this holster came with an 1915 Artillery and the pistol was registered to a family in Eskişehir/Turkey on 1957 (in the late fifties the weapons registration law was accepted in the parliament), I suppose the holster was made earlier than this date.
I believe that the family was on crops grinding (mill) business and they had economically good standards.
At that time, such weapons were very expensive and not everyone was able to buy one. So, I think, they ordered to the best leather and holster master for that time. I think the maker of this holster lived in a small town close to the city Muğla in Aegean.

After this family (father and son) a forrest protector (let's say forrest police) bought the holster along with the artillery and brought it to Düzce/Turkey.
There I heard, he had carried the artillery for 15 years in this holster.
When I publish photos of the artillery you will realize the color on the barrel is worn. This also explains why the leather holster is not a very good condition. Nevertheless, it was definitely not a "concealed carry" holster :D .

By the way, third owner of the Artillery and the holster, forrest protector, died a few weeks ago. Between me and forrest protector there is also a police officer, who is a real Luger collector and has lots of practical information about Lugers. He kept the gun for a few years before selling it to me.

When it comes to your wish David; I think it is not possible to reach the leather master because he is most probably dead. However I can ask if there are other masters who works with the same kind of leather and with similar workmanship. If I can find samples of his/her work I will share the photos here in Lugerforum.

Nice holster, and good to know it is in good hands ;)

My leather working friend's name is Aaron Arlinghaus, ( "Haus") http://hausleather.com/. His specialty is bags & belts; but he does artistic, custom work, as well. He is good/imaginative with color, carving, and stamping. My plan is to design the holster myself--part Turkish, part Swiss, perhaps part open--along the lines I am considering. I'll collaborate with him on decoration and function. I also like the idea of an acid/salt-free leather of a somewhat softer structure, to be easier on what finish remains on my poor old 1917 DWM LP.08.

Thanks for describing this last Turkish holster further for me.

p.s. I have this image of a man running around Turkey, ferreting out Lugers wherever they may be. How do you find the time and money do do all this, plus take all these very comprehensive photo sets you've posted? Judging by what appears to be a business brochure, what kind of business does Evrenay do? (if this is too far off topic, please ignore...)

Dear itachaartist,

I am a civil engineer and managing director in my own company (Evrenay İnşaat Mühendislik Ltd-Evrenay Construction and Engineering Co.) which is in construction business.
Soon, we will also be in accommodation business in my hometown Eskişehir also (200 Km West of Ankara, 350 km East of İstanbul in the mid-west Anatolia). We are building a private dorm for 150 students and a parking garage in the core of the city, which will also be managed by us.

Most Lugers I met was through my friend Arif who is a police officer (actually superintend). Some Lugers we I see when we visit our friends in different cities. They know our interests and help us to discover new Lugers.

A part from it, in practical issues, Arif is a very know Luger person in Turkey, because as you know not every Luger functions flawlessly, he helps people to find the right parts or magazines for their Lugers. Of course he doesn't do it for charity.

When it comes to me, I love these pistols. I would like to get specialized in this magnificent pistol. I would say, I am proficient in both English and German languages, apart from my mothertongue Turkish.
So it is easier for me to keep myself up to date through proper documentation and literature.

I also meet other old pistols such as C96 Mauser of Lee Enfield or Mauser rifles but I do not want to get spread in order to keep my concentration on Lugers.

When it comes to money, I do not buy every Luger I see. Although I could, it is not my intention.

Last Luger I wanted to buy was a 1902 Carbine without a shoulder stock and I was ready to pay 10000 USD however the owner demanded a higher price. I would buy it because I know I can sell it when I have to. So, it is also a sort of investment in my eyes.

Now, I am after a "Hava Ordusuna Mahsustur-Air Army" Luger. I hope to see her next week. We will drive more less 1000 km to meet her. It is like this, I learned from other older Luger fans in Turkey. You can go 1000 km for seeing a particular pistol and may be to buy and the owner won't show it to you because of his different type of thinking or may be he worries that you might get very envious and try to steal his beloved pistol :D (No joke!)

I don't know what the others think about the photos but I wouldn't consider myself as a talented photograph. I think it is the photo camera which does most of the job. A Panasonic Lumix compact camera which I bought on Xios in order to help our neighbors in their economic crisis days (it looks like our shopping didn't help them much :D).

There many Luger fans in Turkey but they are mostly interested in the shape and shooting with it. Mostly these men doesn't know any foreign language and there is no real documentation about Lugers in Turkish. But now a new generation is coming, who is equipped with better language skills and have other motivations other than shooting with their Lugers and listening how beautiful it sounds.
I invited a friend of mine to Lugerforum. As far as I know he speaks English and Italian, and had read Mr Mauro Baudino's the La Luger Artiglieria. I hope he joins the forum soon. I am sure he also has some nice stories to tell and photos to show.