Extremely rare 1894 Borchardt pistol by the Ludwig Loewe company (around 700 were made}, marked on top of the chamber 'Waffenfabrik Loewe Berlin', 'DRP 75837'. This is the father of the Luger and George Luger used the toggle mechanism in his later design for the PO8. This example was owned by the American showman and aviator 'Colonel' Samuel F Cody, who used it in his wild west shows. He had the custom oversize grips added and extra long wooden stock (He was a big man). The gun stayed in the Cody family until 1996 when it was sold at Sotheby's. In cowboy clothes and a stetson hat, with shoulder length hair and an extravagant moustache, the big Texan cut an outlandish figure. It was not hard to believe he had at one time been a performer in a travelling wild west show called 'The Klondyke Nugget' (as he had in the 1890s). However, it was this same man whose man-lifting kite design was accepted by the Army in 1904. Cody was retained at Aldershot to experiment with aeroplanes. On 16 October 1908, he rewarded his employer's faith by achieving the first flight in Britain, at Farnborough a few miles away. His machine was a massive Wright-based biplane nick-named The Cathedral. Cody's outgoing personality endeared him to the public and in 1909 he became a British citizen In 1911. Cody was killed in 1913 when a machine he was testing for that year's Circuit of Britain broke up in mid-air. A rare gun with a facinating history. Deactivated with a full working action, fully strippable and it can be cocked and dry fired.
This Historic Weapon is Sold
sales@deactivated-guns.co.uk. Call 01547 528556 / 07957 590827 to order.
