| Text Resize buttons
|
The earliest identified American advertisement for the late old model commercial Luger Carbine, introduced by DWM, circa 1902 – 1903, is a stand-alone 3-page, 2-sided circa 1904 – 1906 Hans Tauscher flyer titled: The LUGER Automatic Repeating Pistol and Carbine. The subject flyer was mailed to a potential customer in a 1908 post marked envelope. The flyer can be dated to 1904 – 1908 based on the added ink-stamped Hans Tauscher business address of 10-12 THOMAS STREET located on the bottom of the cover page, one of Tauscher’s earliest New York City business addresses, prior to his more recognized 320 Broadway, New York City 1908 – 1916 address. Based on the added ink stamp address, Tauscher may have still been located at his earliest known 1901 – 1904 address of 56 – 58 Pine Street, New York City, when he first interfaced with the United States army. Prior to 1901 Tauscher was employed by Hermann Boker & Company. Although the 56 - 58 Pine Street building address still exists there is no identified Tauscher literature with that address. A full page of the 1904 – 1906, six-page Tauscher flyer is dedicated to the new Luger carbine titled: THE LUGER AUTOMATIC CARBINE with testimonials from several famous people of the day, one in particular, the then United States sitting President, Teddy Roosevelt. Since Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1904 to 1909 corroborates the early circa 1904 – 1906 dating of the flyer of, at a minimum, before the 1908 dated mailing envelope. For more information on the Hans Tauscher 1908 dated envelope and contents, click here. A second Hans Tauscher 2-page, 2-sided flyer advertising the late Old Model Luger Carbine is pictured on the lower ⅓ of the cover page with a price of $45.00 with the top ⅔ of the cover page advertising the New Model grip safety Luger, 30 Cal and 9mm for $25.00. The flyer was mailed in a 1909 post mark stamped Tauscher letter head logo envelope. The Tauscher typed cover letter with boilerplate letterhead has a blue ink-stamped date of March 8th 1909. The enclosed 2-page 2-sided flyer can be dated to 1908 based on a second envelope enclosed 1-page, 2-sided Tauscher flyer of Luger testimonials with an original Tauscher address of 10 – 12 THOMAS ST., NEW YORK. with an added blue ink stamped 320 BROADWAY, H. TAUSCHER. address. For more information on the Hans Tauscher 1909 dated envelope and contents, click here. The next identified advertisement for the late old model Luger carbine is a 2-page, 2-sided, but slightly smaller 6-inch by 9-inch size and was published about 1909 or later titled: THE LUGER AUTOMATIC SPORTING CARBINE by a commercial American retailer, Schoverling, Daly and Gales, a.k.a. SD&G, possibly contemporaneous with the 1909 SD&G catalog, with all four pages dedicated exclusively to the Luger Carbine. The advertisement is much more detailed and expansive in its technical description than the earlier, full page Carbine ad of the six-page Tauscher flyer. The SD&G flyer contains a special section, as does the first Tauscher flyer, titled: Dismounting and Reassembling and contains similar testimonials by the same famous personages as the Tauscher ad and was published 1909 or later as identified by referring to the now “former” President Theodore Roosevelt. The last page of the flyer is titled: Results of Shooting at Various Distances showing a European Boar at 100, 200 and 300 yards. The Boar is identified as European game as the identical chart was first used in the only known German language flyer, printed by or for the introduction of the Luger Carbine in Europe. The German language flyer was more of a technical description document, meant to supplement the 1902 German language green cover instruction manual and not promotional in nature, containing no prices, although the cover page is titled: Jagdkarabiner „Parabellum” Selbstlader or Hunting Carbine “Parabellum”, Self-loader and touts the new carbine as “nach System der vorteilhaft bekannten Pistolen „Parabellum” or modeled after the well-known System Pistol “Parabellum”. Interesting that SD&G obtained this English language translated version of this chart, which, ironically, at the time, may not have been available to Tauscher, or alternately he did not take advantage of it, for it is not used in his first Luger Carbine advertisement or any subsequent Luger Carbine ads. For more on the German language Luger Carbine flyer, click here. The SD&G flyer shows evidence of being part of, or pasted insert of an SD&G catalog, as it shows signs of being separated from a catalog. Additionally, this is the only known original example of this flyer, being first pictured in 1992 in Luger Holsters and Their Accessories by E. Bender on pages 32 and 33 as part of the John Pearson Collection. It next surfaced nineteen years later, in December 2011 in a Rock Island Auction as part of Lot 1520, page 14, to disappear yet again, briefly, until acquired for the LOB Collection. Since about 1901 Hans Tauscher was the sole distributor for DWM and the Luger in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and as stated in the subject 1908 or earlier ad for the carbine: For further information write your dealer, or Hans Tauscher which defines the relationship with DWM as the sole representative, but not exclusive, namely a distributor for any American dealer/retailer with the likely scenario, in this case, that Tauscher allocated some of the Luger Carbine inventory, now several years on the market since first introduced, to SD&G. The thinking being that SD&G, being a well-known retailer with a large catalog readership or consumer base, would benefit the slow moving, high priced Luger Carbine, although based on the pricing disparity, $50 for the first Tauscher ad and $45 for the second 1908 Tauscher ad vs. $30 for the circa 1909 – 1910 SD&G ad, it would appear that SD&G was undercutting Tauscher, however, based on the time spread between the flyers, 1904 – 1906 – 1908 for Tauscher, 1909 for SD&G, suggests, although improbable, as yet another, unidentified Tauscher flyer advertisement for the Luger Carbine with a price in-line with the 1909 SD&G flyer could exist. Prior to the introduction of the Luger carbine, SD&G in their 1900 catalog had been offering completely cased DWM C93 Borchardt rigs and shortly thereafter, offering Model 1900 Luger pistols in their own packaging, identifying themselves as “–AGENTS–”, suggesting a separate, early relationship with DWM, prior to Tauscher gaining the DWM distributorship. Apparently the first circa 1909 SD&G Luger Carbine flyer ad resulted in only meager sales, as pricing of the Luger Carbine continued a downward spiral, prompting additional price reductions as identified in another later, previously unknown Luger Carbine flyer, first pictured in this article, also published by SD&G, about 1911. The flyer is a rather large 9 inch by 12 inch, 1 page, 2-sided, printed on green paper titled: The Luger Automatic Sporting Carbine for $25.00 with a stated “Former Wholesale Price $40.00” with the statement: These Carbines should sell rapidly at the price asked –– ORDER AT ONCE. The back side of the flyer pictures the same chart used in the first SD&G flyer with the same title: Results of Shooting at Various Distances discussed earlier. Pictured together are all three shooting charts for comparison. The final pre-World War 1 advertisement for the late old Model Luger carbine, introduced in 1902 – 1903, was from Hans Tauscher, published in his circa 1910 sales catalog titled: Catalogue of MODERN HIGH POWERED MODERN ARMS, pictured on page 18. It is interesting to note that the Tauscher and last SD&G text descriptions are identical, except for the price, of which the Tauscher offering is $30.00, whereas the SD&G is $25.00. The final circa 1913 Tauscher sales catalog titled: High Power Rifles and Automatic pistols has only one ad for the New Model Grip safety Luger and no ads for the Luger Carbine. Interesting, that while the 1913 Hans Tauscher sales catalog drops the Luger Carbine, another well-known period American retailer, Francis Bannerman, noted mainly for war surplus items, advertises or picks-up the Luger Carbine in its 1913 catalogue, on page 66 for the incredible sum of: $48.00 including extra magazines and cleaning outfit, perhaps reversing the decline in value, which has continued to modern times when these rare Luger carbines, when found in exceptional condition can, on a good day, fetch in excess of $20,000. There were certainly other period American sales catalog ads for the circa 1902 Luger carbine yet identified, but the Tauscher and Shoverling, Daly & Gales advertisements are the most prominent, extensive and detailed. Other early American carbine advertisements include a circa 1909 Pacific Hardware and Steel catalog on page 4043, and a circa 1910 Baker & Hamilton Sporting Goods Catalogue on page 1238. Other pre-war period European advertisements for the circa 1902 old model Luger carbine are:
The Luger carbine reappeared in the 1920s, but as a new model parts gun, assembled by DWM/BKIW from WW1 and other commercial surplus Luger parts, being offered in a wide variety of configurations, mostly with mismatched serial numbers, being advertised in many 1920 American sales catalogs. In modern times, these 1920s assembled Luger carbine parts guns are avidly sought after by collectors, and are about as pricey as their early pre-war predecessors. Pictured are several 1920s American catalog carbine advertisements from 1920 to 1929.
Pricing History First Tauscher flyer: Luger Carbine $50.00, ammunition $2.50/100 retail. First SD&G flyer: Luger Carbine $30.00 retail, formally $50.00 net, ammunition $2.50/100 retail. Second Tauscher flyer: Luger carbine $45, ammunition $2.5/100. Second SD&G flyer: Luger Carbine $25.00, former wholesale price $40.00, ammunition $2.00/100. Final circa 1910 pre-WW1 Tauscher Sales Catalog price: $30.00, no ammunition price. 1913 Francis Bannerman Catalogue offering: Price, $48.00, with extra magazines and cleaning outfit. Hans Tauscher New York City business addresses 1901 – 1904: 56 – 58 Pine Street. 1904 – 1908: 10 – 12 Thomas Street, P.O. Box 1605. 1908 – 1916: 320 Broadway, P.O. Box 1605. 1934 – 1944: The H. Tauscher Arms Corporation, 342 Madison Avenue. |
