Quote:
Originally Posted by friendlyfred
Can anyone enumerate these marks from my "Spandau" Luger?
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In the first picture, the rightmost stamp is the Imperial Erfurt Rifle Factory power-proof eagle, displayed wtih cross and chalice.
The stamp next left is the final acceptance stamp.
Next is the final assembly aceptance.
Fourth to the left is the inspection stamp certifying receiver hardness and date stamp. Above it is the crown/RC stamp of the Revisons-Commission, accepting a part wihch is out-of-specification in some non-critical manner.
The final two marks are meaningless within the context of the official P08 marking specifications. The forms of the crowns themselves differ from contemporary design in that the base of the crown is an oval, rather than the flat baseline of known inspector stamp crowns (this is also the case for the crown above the K on the center toggle). The design of these spurious crowns appears to emulate the design of the "Spandau" toggle mark.
It is noteworthy that the proof eagle of the Imperial Spandau Rifle Factory does not appear anywhere on the pistol.
The serif Roman
K of the toggle proof is an anachronism. The Frakture typeface was the official typeface of the German Empire, and was in constant use through the Weimar years. Its use was officially discouraged in 1934, but it was not banned outright until 1941.
The only prescribede use for a Roman letter on the exterior of the P08 was the Roman
A signifying
Auschuss (rejected).
--Dwight