1914 CHAMBER DATED DWM ARTILLERY

[Big Norm]

I am going to throw out a question for the forums discussion. A couple of weeks ago I was at a Michigan gunshow and I had a dealer show me a chamber dated 1914 DWM artillery Luger. I got excited and looked at it. But then I noticed that the serial number was #75 (no small cap). I handed the gun back to the dealer and told him it was a fake. He looked stunned. So I told him that according to Jan Stills book, the appropriate serial number range for that gun is 294 through 1995a. He wanted to argue with me but he didn't. This guy is an experienced gun dealer and collector who was holding the gun for another dealer who is not a collector, just a merchandizer. So I couldn't examine the gun as closely as I would like to. But I suspect that the gun will soon be on the market as an original chamber dated 1914 DWM artiller with a hefty price tag.


But then while at last weeks OGCA meeting in Cleveland I had a talk with Mr Simpson of Simpson LTD. We had a gentlemens argument over the gun. His point was that Jan Still only listed the serial numbers of the Lugers that he had seen and personally verified. Jan Still just had not seen this gun so he did not include it in his serial range. He said that there are no records of the actual serial number range. He said that I was misreading Stills.


Mr Simpson got stubborn on his point and I got equally stubborn on my point that if a Luger did not fall within Jan Stills serial number range then I would consider it a counterfeit and not consider its purchase. I would consider anybody who sold that gun as an original would be committing fraud.


From previous discussions on this forum I have been lead to believe that Jan Stills is a perfectionist. If that is so, then I do not believe that he would publish a haphazard list of serial numbers without doing some research on the matter first.


Now I know that there are, if fact, a number of knowledgable Lugerheads on this forum. So I want to throw out the question of who is correct?

Big Norm