Hello Friends,
I have been in contact with Adrian for the past few weeks discussing other items and accessories when he mentioned this Luger to me. I had already received images of this Luger and I did not have permission to share the information on a forum.
Doc, this Luger is not a rebarreled M1900/02 and its configuration is correct. It is a standard M1900/02 pistol with a 7" barrel and a fixed sight which was previously equipped with a push-button stock which has gone missing. This pistol is NOT a prototype because I know of about five other pistols with the exact same configuration (7" barrel and a fixed sight) spread out between the serial range 10,000-10,050.
If this pistol had a tangent sight, its value would be significantly higher with or without a 'GL'. In view of the fact that this Luger does not have a 'GL', it can be considered that it was sold as a commercial pistol. It is likely that this particular Luger 10,010B went through the shop of the dealer Rassiti in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The big question is the possible meaning of the B-suffix. Some collectors would think it has something to do with the barrel length, or the classification of the pistol has an experimental because of a specific detail/feature. If I had to take a wild guess, the B-suffix probably makes reference to a dealer or demonstration sample when they were revealed or sent from DWM to their various representatives around the world including the US.
During my extensive research on the Mauser C96 pistols, I have recorded a few special pistols which I call 'alphabet' C96 pistols which were made around the same period of 1902. These pistols are only numbered with a character such as L, M, Q, R and V. I suppose that DWM introduced a similar pattern of numbering for these dealer/demo sample pistols with new features, except that DWM used a block in the 10,000 serial range with the suffix-B and Mauser decided to use only characters. I do not classify the 'alphabet' C96 pistols as prototypes because there is no change or improvement in the operational system of the pistol. The new features which I have observed could be explained/described as 'cosmetic' which Mauser was probably trying to demonstrate to their dealers. The same concept can be applied to DWM whether or not these pistols remained as in-house specimens or they actually left the factory. I guess DWM may have preferred to send some pistols out which went to different parts of the world such as South America, Europe (including the UK) and Scandinavia.
As I have explained to some fellow collectors during personal conversations, it is important to view the wide picture of European arms manufacturing at the turn of last century in order to get an idea of how each company competed against each other or followed/copied each other even if a few were owned by the same (Loewe) family!
As the saying goes, "for every action, there is a reaction" and this phase can be applied to this very interesting and active period of European firearms improvements. It is our 'job' today to present logical and sensible explainations based on historical facts and designs.
Cheers,
Albert
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