1893 Loewe Borchardt
Serial #814, mag unmatched, #120.
No stock or holster.
Serial is on the side of the trigger, and on the bottom of the frame, next to the mag well.
This is amongst the first thousand Borchardts made, by the earliest maker, Waffenfabrik Loewe, Berlin.
BUG proofs on barrel, BU on receiver, breech block also marked, but I did not open the action to get pics.
D.R.P. 75837 is the Patent number.
Gun shows a bit of honest wear, I would rate it at 90% finish.
Straw parts look good, but the fire blued parts are a strikingly beautiful shade.
Back of the mag release button, extractor, and all screws are in brilliant fire blue.
I am not brave enough to field strip this one, sorry, and I even cringe at jacking it open.
A beautiful and rare species, Borchardts are the first semi-auto, mag fed handguns to go into production in the world.
Georg Luger "borrowed" and refined the toggle action from the Borchardt to design the Luger.
Borchardt had "borrowed" the toggle joint from the Maxim machine gun, although the toggle is internal on the Maxim.
As unwieldy as this gun appears, it actually balances pretty well in your hand.
This surprised me.
I understand that this is the Holy Grail of Luger collections, and I am suitably impressed enough by this 115 year old bit of workmanship to see why.
