help valuing 1917 artillery
 

Hi - new to the forum and quite naive to lugers. I have one that my wife's cousin brought back from the war. He's no longer alive and I don't have any way of sleuthing it out except to ask those who know. I have learned quite a bit by reading this forum. Thank you all for being so free with your expertise. The 1917 is in really fantastic shape with all matching numbers except on the magazine. The holster is in amazing condition except that the little keeper flap on the top is hanging on by a thread. The cleaning rod is a little rusty, and whatever was supposed to be in the top little pocket in the top flap is missing. The stamp inside the top flap says" R. Guiremand", next line "Berlin S.W." next line "1917". I have plenty of photos including some poor ones of the bright, clean bore. Thanks for any help.
Cheers.

Very nice! A beautiful Artillery pistol! Oil the shaft of the Artillery rod and slide a wad of 000 steel wool down it a couple of times and the rust will disappear. The little pocket in the top held a loading tool. It helped hold onto the magazine's follower button to facilitate loading cartridges. Most magazine springs are quite stout!

Thanks so much Jerry. Any idea what it's worth? I'm thinking $2500 for a pistol and holster is bargain pricing. Thoughts?
thanks so much.

I'm thinking that $2500 is maybe a bit low to maybe about right, depending on how fast you want to sell. It may bring $3k if you are patient.
A very nice old Luger that needs a good cleaning and a bit of leather touch-up.
Congrat's and welcome.
dju

Sal, The pistol..if it holds up number wise on the interior and the bore looks as good as the rest..would be a good bargain at $2500. If the finish is original etc...do the inside of the grips match?
The holster and rod may bring $4-500 or perhaps more. I agree with David..spot on at 3K.
Are all the numbers on the ladder sight matching? Is it a fine tune sight on the front of the barrel?

Again - thanks David and Jerry for helping me understand this pistol. I removed the grips and looked inside - couldn't find numbers. what I think I could see was a script "l". The "l" is the suffix on the serial number. So, I suspect that is consistent with other numbers. The front sight is not fine tunable and all numbers on the rear sight match - which does not have the fine adjustment marks. As near as I can tell, I'm the 4th owner of this weapon: the German officer it was issued to, my wife's cousin, wife's uncle, and now me. It ended up with me because no one else in the family has any interest in firearms. So, it hasn't been in the collector circuit, and any modifications would have been done by the German Army. And honestly, I think the first owner was some kind of medical officer who never took it out of his desk drawer.

It's been a fun sidebar to do some detective work on this pistol. It's really neat. I wouldn't sell it except that I really am not a collector and I have another from my grandfather - a man i actually knew well- and I have an attachment to his pistol. Grandpa's is closer to "shooter" grade although still all matching except the barrel was replaced in a military factory repair - at least I think so based on proof marks on the barrel and the fact that the no's on the barrel don't match any other numbers. In any case, Grandpa's has seen some duty - just like Grandpa. And it's fun to shoot.

You sat that all numbers match but I see several different numbers on the first set of photos?

Bill

Bill, I think they are the same, they appear to be 65, 66 or 86 depending on how you look at them :rolleyes:

I agree with Ed..

apologies for the amateurish photography. I was trying to get all those parts in a single shot. the numbers match but the photo is not a good one. sorry about that.