Bannerman question?
 

Let me ask a question about Bannerman. I have heard this term time and time again on different types of weapons front that era. What exactly does Bannerman mean? I know that they are a colllectable in terms of collecting firearms. But if someone can make a little bit of since of what that really means I'd be appreciated.

Bannerman was a very large Arms and Sporting Goods trader based, of all places, in New York City. They come up often in relationaship to Lugers because Bannerman was the company that ended up purchasing the majority, if not all the US Army Test Lugers, which survived the trials. They closed their doors finally in the 1970s, I think.

How do you tell whats a bannerman and whats not. Im sure there a document saying what bannerman bought I assume.

this has been discussed by collectors for some time, a couple of luger books quote the numbers considered as 'Bannerman" bought lugers from the gov't, this listing is known. The issue of what is a test luger and what is not is that there is a range of at least 2,000 and perhaps more that have the 'Test" characteristics. Primarily the lack of 'Germany' export markings, but a few other characteristics also. Central Powers by Jan Still has this in depth.

There is presently (and by several folks) searching for other documentation, there is likely some and likely not most. Its simply that most of this documentation has been lost to time.

If I aint mistaking I have read or heard someone calling a later persion luger, a mauser version if Im thinking. Was there some later than the original test lugers.

I am sorry, I don't understand the question?

Have you read the FAQ, it talks about all manufacturers.

Luger is an american, generic term, Germany calls it P08, etc, and other countries call it something else....

Ok looking at the simpson Ltd. website there are some late 1930's mauser lugers that they call banner. Maybe this is where I'm getting confused. Are these the same thing as bannerman

"Banner" refers to the Mauser logo (flag) on the toggle of certain late Lugers which show that they were openly made by Mauser.
"Bannerman" was an arms buyer (I think) who purchased a certain large group of 1900 model Lugers which had been formerly used in the US Gov't test in the early 1900's. There are records of the specific serial numbers of the guns purchased by Bannerman.
No relation.
dju

Bannerman was a huge buyer and seller of militaria from around the late 1800's to the mid 1940;s to 50's or so.

Archive.org has a scanned copy of the 1927 Bannerman catalog in several parts available online as a series of JPEG image files. You can find them with the search:

http://archive.org/search.php?query=...20Catalogue%22

It's interesting to see what they were selling, and appreciate the prices!

Also, Bannerman bought an island in the Hudson River to use as a warehouse. It was abandoned long ago, but is now in process of being preserved as a heritage site.

http://www.bannermancastle.org/

I used to have a boat on the Hudson, and so sailed close to this site. It's just below and across form Newburgh NY.

Marc