[Herb]

Joshua, this weapon appears to be in very good condition and a realtively rare variation. Thier reference to Kenyon is correct and he has documented that possibly 1,000 may exist. One thing that I noticed that looked suspicious is the serial number stamping on the underside of the barrel. The number 4 is incorrectly stamped, not in line with the other numbers. Additionally there is no land diameter stamp (8.82-8.83 etc) that I can see. This may just be sloppy work done at the time if manufacturing or it may be a 'forced' serial number done at a later date, or a replaced barrel. If found to have a replaced barrel then I would suspect a total refinish as I can see no difference in the finish of the barrel and the frame. Further they say the barrel is 4 5/8" and Kenyon says it should be 4 3/4" long, true, a small difference but something that should be taken into account. They further do not state that the finish is original. A close examination of the the tiny markings on the barrel (not visible in the photos) needs to be done to insure it is of the proper date range and correct Mauser stampings. A 37 Mauser barrel should have two Nazi eagles, one on the lower right side and another on the upper left. I've seen many Lugers offered by Phoenix Investment and in my opinion they tend to run at the high end or higher and somehow they seem to come up with rare variations fairly regularily. I'm not implying anything other than coincidence.