Purported Hugo Borchardt signature

[Mauser 712]

Originally Posted by Ron Wood

Albert,
In 2012 an individual by the name of Gordon Bruce published a 8.5"X11", 164 page paperback book "The Evolution of Military Automatic Pistols/Self-loading Pistol Designs of Two World Wars and the Men who Invented Them". It is a pretty nice effort with a good amount of historical information that all-in-all is reasonably accurate (there is always some room for improvement but I found it rather good and would recommend it for enjoyable reading).There are thumbnail biographies of lots of early firearms designers, Krnka, Feederle Brothers, Luger, Browning, etc. The write-up on Borchardt included two photos at different times in his life. This was exciting to me so I contacted the author regarding the source of the photos. It was a rather disappointing reply that he had gotten them from "a collector in Poland" several years ago and couldn't provide any further information on them. For what it is worth here is one of the photos. (by the way, you might enjoy the book if you can find one)

Also by-the-way, those American factory owners (Colt, Singer and Sharps) employed Borchardt's ideas and paid him handsomely (for the time) for his efforts. The Sharps-Borchardt rifle remains a masterpiece of American engineering, but alas was "too modern" so it did not enjoy the sales level it deserved. And while you are busy down-playing American industry please remember that Ludwig Loewe came to American to study American manufacturing processes and those processes became the foundation for much of Loewe's success and subsequent establishment of European standards. Please abandon your anti-American bias, enjoy the blessings of the season, and have a happy and prosperous New Year.
Ron

Greetings Ron,

Thanks for the information regarding an image of H. Borchardt. I saw the same image on another web site that you added to your post, and do you reckon that it is a correct image of him?

I was only joking about the "tight arse" comment by giving a funny explanation for the reason he left the US. Notice that I placed a ;-) wink after my previous post.

It is the Christmas season, so lighten up, Mate

Where is my Christmas present from you? I'll accept a check from you as long as it does not BOUNCE

Cheers,
Albert