"KRIEGHOFF PRESENTATION LUGER. SN 25190. Cal. 9 mm. Extraordinary Kreighoff Luger with 4" bbl with "KREIGHOFF SUHL" marking & "HK" & anchor logo on front toggle link with full serial number on left front side of receiver. Left side flat of frame is marked "Heinrich Kreighoff / Waffenfabrik / Suhl". Remainder of pistol has nearly 100% coverage deep relief, Germanic style, oak leaf pattern engraving with fine stippled background. All flat surfaces have gold wire outline with a cloud shaped gold wire inlay around inscription on flat panel on left side of frame. Grip screws are also engraved. Fitted with extremely beautiful, special grade, carved oak leaf & acorn pattern walnut grips with checkered center medallion. Inside each grip is a pencil number "1". Accompanied by its orig, matching numbered, machined stainless steel body aluminum base magazine with matching engraving patterns on base. Finish on this pistol appears to be orig bright metal but is in reality, a pickling process wherein the parts that were not to be pickled were gold washed & after pickling process the gold wash was removed. This pickling process leaves the surface slightly rough, on the order of rust bluing. It is apparent, upon close examination, that the engraved areas were gold washed prior to pickling leaving only the unengraved edges exposed which show this light roughness. Accompanied by a burgundy velvet lined English oak presentation box, custom fitted in bottom for pistol & one magazine with an empty lidded compartment. There is a brass disk inlay in the lid. This spectacular Luger is accompanied by a copy of an email from Carl Kleber of Worms, Germany dated May 2, 2008 & addressed to the consignor with the subject "History of Kreighoff Luger #25190". Mr. Kleber states that this pistol was a birthday present for Josef (Sepp) Buerkel in 1943 who, prior to 1929, had been a teacher. At that time he joined the NSDAP (Hitler's Party) and became a Gauleiter of "The West-Gau which covered the area of Western Germany - Rhineland - Palatone, up to the city of Koeln & down to Mannheim/Ludwigshafen & to the French border/Saarbruecken". This was a very large area of that part of Europe. Mr. Kleber goes on to state that in 1944 Gauleiter Buerkel became disillusioned that Germany could win the war. He apparently spoke of this with his driver, Wilhelm Baer and apparently also spoke openly in the town of Kaiserslautern where he had his offices. Mr. Kleber states that his SS bodyguards reported his statements & Gauleiter Buerkel "died of natural causes". Mr. Kleber also states that Gauleiter Buerkel had a hunting estate near Kerzeheim/Ramsen in the Staatswald and that the house is still standing in a very remote place. It had a well & power plant and was used as an emergency communications center & transmitter station for phone lines from Paris to Berlin. The family Jung from the Klauser-Hof took care of this estate. He goes on that toward the end of WW2 the driver, Wilhelm Baer, took all of the estate, papers, uniforms, etc. of Gauleiter Buerkel to the Klauser-Hof where he hid & he also hid the Luger & a lot of other guns. Wilhelm Baer was taken prisoner-of-war by the advancing American Army and spent time in the death camp at Bad Kreuznach, where he almost died. He was released in 1947. He returned to the Klauser-Hof and in 1949 married a daughter of the Jung Family. In 1974 this Kreighoff Luger was registered in his name when Germany introduced gun registration and it remained in his possession until he died in 2002. The Baer family sold off all of the possessions of Gauleiter Burkel & Wilhelm Baer with this Kreighoff Luger being the last item, which Mr. Kleber purchased himself. With this solid provenance, this is one of the very few, if not the only, documented presentation Kreighoff Lugers in the world for sale today and certainly is one of the finest ever made. PROVENANCE: Doug Smith Collection CONDITION: Extraordinarily fine, all numbered parts are matching. Overall retains virtually all of its bright pickled finish with clean crisp engraving & bright gold. Grips are extremely beautiful & sound and retain most of their orig oil finish. Mechanics are crisp, strong bright bore with fine pitting in grooves. Magazine is near mint. Case is extremely fine with minor nicks & scratches & slight wear internally. 4-36115 JR233 & BS (75,000-125,000)"
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