I think that very much more is made out of the "history" aspects of Lugers than is warrented. The fact is, what most of these guns have to say is lost to history. Without records of issuance or anecdote there is no way to know whether this Luger or that got this wear, that ding, the cracked and worn grip, those patches of pitting: in combat, with hard use by a target shooter, or by neglectful storage.
There are, patently, some eloquent Lugers. Any Luger with unit markings; any small contract guns sent to known places--Test Eagles, Vickers/Dutch, Crossed Rifle Russians, Persian Artilleries (you get the idea); Lugers with bring-back papers or veteran capture stories (first-person or otherwise); certainly deserve maintenance of their status quo as historical artifacts. This actually contravenes the principle of "buy the Luger, not the story" as the story is where the history actually lies, in relationship to the Luger. I suppose this also extends to "puzzle guns", Lugers with strange, questionable, or obscure markings.
Most of the Lugers out there are historical orphans. The 1917 Navy with file marks and cold blue spots with little original finish I buy from a gun show dealer; the 1900AE which has been worn out, shot out, buffed out and reblued twice which I buy from a regular dealer; the 1920 Commercial which I buy from a pawnshop; the Black Widow I buy from a friend--all are disconnected from their history as surely as pulling a wall plug.
For that matter, if the history concerns you, you should think twice about "restoring" that mismatched Luger. If it comes from a batch of Russian/East German reworks part of its history is definitely known, and it is a history which actually has some meaning to those of us who grew up in the postwar shadow of the Communist threat.
--Dwight
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