Days Gone By
 

Here are some ads from newspapers that you may find interesting
Top Wichita 5-18-1901
Middle Phoenix 12-14-1901
Bottom Pittsburgh 7-5-23
In some early ads they are still referred to as revolvers

Chicago
 

Chicago 1-29-1922 6 parts of an article about a luger aquisition

Thanks very much! What is the source for these?

--Dwight

Cool! Thanks for posting.

Chicago has had "gun" problems for years; wonder if that reporter got arrested for his purchase after writing about it?

These are photographs of vintage ads
Tulsa 8-25-1916
Philly 2-5-1922
Philly 11-22-22

Peter von Frantzius seems to have been an interesting character, and I'm not surprised to see him mentioned in this context. He ran a respectable sporting goods business in the front of the store, and at the same time he was selling machine guns to the mob in a back room. At the time he was called "The Armorer of Gangland", and he's also the man behind the Franzite grips.

By the way: The first article appears to be about the military trials, and the reporter calls the Luger a "revolver that carries 116 shots". The education level of reporters hasn't changed a bit.

Midnite Auto
 

Thanks for the info on the "Armorer of Gangland" ! that's cool !

As the Tribune 1922 article says, "It's easy to get guns in Chicago".

More ads and info
1,2 and 3 St Louis 6-24-1923
4 Washington D.C. 1-16-1907

Interesting ad.

This one shows the cut down artillery holsters.

$1.95 for a Luger stock ain't bad. At that price I wouldn't even ask if it's a repro.

Some playing on the calculator and inflation adjustments led to some insight on just how good a deal that 1923 St. Louis ad was.

$1 in 1923 had the purchasing power of about $15 today ($100=$1504.95)

That Luger with stock was a $57.95* deal for $51.95, adjusted to $872.12 for $781.82 in 2019

The sale price totaled a final of $15.80, adjusted to $237.78

*There was no NFA in 1923, so they also avoided a $200 ($3009.90) tax on SBR's. Of course, the tax remains $200 even in 2019.

"Guns of German Make Flood Market of U.S."

Now that is a headline that we are likely to never see in a newspaper again; regretfully.

Love those old ads and articles. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry about the quality
1-and-2 Pittsburgh 2-10-1900
3 Kansas 9-9-1922

Spokane 3-20-1947

When I was 14, my dad said I could have a gun. I literally saved my lunch money, and bought a Spreework P38 for $55 in 1966. The Lugers in the shop, mostly vet bringbacks, were &75 for a 4" and $125 for an Artillery Luger. A bit more than I could afford. Dad had to sign for the gun. I think nice, non-corrosive Canadian ball ammo was $2 for 36 rounds.