[ithacaartist]

The listing says " REASONABLE OFFERS ARE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED". I worked at an antique store, refinishing furniture part time during college; one of their sidelines was running the famous (locally) Brianwood Tag Sales. I helped as staff for a few of these. While helping consolidate and organize the contents of a house, I found an empty Luger holster on a shelf in the stairway to the basement. I was able to identify it even back then. However, there was a problem: The reason the house's contents were sold.

The house is on Hudson Street in Ithaca NY. It belonged to a family named Mitchell. Coincidentally, a co-worker had gone to high school with the son, whom he called "poor Mitch". One night the son entered the parents' bedroom and dispatched his father with the bring-back Luger that almost assuredly had filled the holster I found. I do not remember if he killed the mom, too, but after that, he took off in the family car, to be confronted by police in Oklahoma. The ensuing shoot-out ended "Mitch's" life. When I suggested this connection to the holster, the bosses decided not to offer it in the tag sale and thanked me for the insight. They may have just thrown it out due to this stigma, but I can't recall.

My hypothesis about this listing is that it was encountered while straightening out an estate for the sale, researched by a non-expert, and priced according to their findings. My point is that estate sale folks are generally quite knowledgeable, but within limits. Though its repro status can be assessed at a glance--closure and buckle all wrong, incorrect knot on the pull-up, and segments of stitching that would break a snake's backbone--these people can't know everything, and I think this may be a simple case of mis-identification. If the seller bought it from them, then due diligence was not exercised, and the same ill-informed optimism concerning its value could have been passed along.