[Ron Wood]

Bender does not give a chronological breakdown of Heiser holsters by style or style number. He does give a very detailed biography of Hermann H. Heiser, and some information can be inferred from that bio. The HHH logo came into being in 1878 and the firm continued in operation by the Heiser family until 1945 when the firm was sold to the Denver Dry Goods Company. Bender states that DDGC continued to operate the Heiser shop until 1950, but doesn't indicate if the HHH logo remained on their products.

With the advent of the automobile and tractor, sale of saddle goods declined, but the holster business flourished. From that you might postulate that the most probable date for a surviving Heiser holster might be from around 1910 to 1940, plus or minus on either end.

Heiser quality remained pretty consistent throughout all the years of production, so it is hard to detect variations in style, stitching, finish, etc., over the years. One marker that I have noted is that the earlier holsters used rivets bearing the HHH stamp. An example is shown in Bender of an artillery length holster with this type of rivet. That would seem to me to indicate that the HHH rivet was in use into the '20s since it is very doubtful sufficient artillery length Lugers would have been in the US to warrant production of such a holster until they became commercially available through Stoeger, A&F, Pacific Arms, etc. Since the holster you found has a plain rivet, it may or may not place manufacture in the late '20s early '30s timeframe.

Most of the Heiser holsters I have seen have had the inscription "Luger" and barrel length hand embossed on the back of the holster. But, this was not a consistent practice as Bender shows examples with and without this marking, so I can't attach any date correlation to this feature.

All of the foregoing is pure conjecture, so don't place any bets on its accuracy.

With regard to the Audley spring steel being really stout, it wasn't. The catch had to be easily depressed with the trigger finger to draw the weapon (if the pistol wasn't on "safe", such an action with the trigger finger may have resulted in the creation of "open toe" Audleys!). The downside of placing a really nice Luger in an Audley holster is the metal to metal contact of the catch and trigger guard, which could result in damage to the finish if the Luger is not very carefully placed into the holster. If inserted carefully, a Luger could be displayed in an Audley, but I certainly would not carry a nice Luger in an Audley hoster. They are still a very desirable holster to have in a collection.