The 1900 "Christmas Gun"

[StarOfTheWest]

This is my very favorite of all the Lugers so far.

It is an early 1900, narrow grip safety, all matched.

Inscription is "Meinem lieben Carl Ludwig Lauenstein, Weihnachten 1903"

Translated this reads: "To my dear Carl Ludewig Lauenstein, Christmas 1903"

Research on this gentleman shows him to have been a lawyer and statesman, judging by his writings available online.
We were able to find his doctoral thesis online, because of the somewhat unusual spelling of his name.

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/49348941

A quote from his thesis:
"If a person has disposed of a thing, and the disposition is subject to a condition precedent, any further disposition which he makes as regards the thing in the period of suspense is ineffective on the satisfaction of the condition to the extent that it would defeat or adversely affect the effect subject to the condition. Such a disposition is equivalent to a disposition which is effected during the period of suspense by execution or attachment or by the administrator in insolvency proceedings."

Very typical German legalese stuff.

When the gun was engraved, it was reblued, apparently in a hot salt blue tank, as the temps could not be gotten hot enough to turn it actually *blue*, without burning the salts, due to the hardness of the steel.
So it is a lovely old plum color.
Very non-DWM, yet vintage in it's own way.

All #s match, and I sat every night during Christmas season this year with this dear gun in my lap, as I waited to fall asleep.

I love this gun.
It touches my heart.

In 1903, there were no wars in Germany.
All was peaceful and good.
Life was sweet.
This gun smells like a Weihnachten tree and Christmas cookies.