SPECIALIST firearms saleroom, Rock Island Auctions of Moline, Illinois, sold over 2800 lots for a total of $5.3m (£3m) in their April 17-19 event. Among the higher priced weapons were three prototype or experimental pistols by Mauser and Walther.
Sold for $75,000 (£42,370) was the only known example of a
prototype Mauser model 1909-1912/1914 automatic pistol chambered in
a calibre .45. This experimental pistol was manufactured by
Wafenfabrik Mauser prior to WWI as a response to the adoption of
the .45 calibre Model 1911 pistol by the US Army, but development
of the design was apparently terminated shortly after the outbreak
of the war in 1914.
The only known example of the Mauser Model HSv pistol was sold at
$60,000 (£33,900). Designed in response to a Wehrmacht request for
the submission of a design for a replacement for the Luger 1934,
the HSv is a 9mm, double-action, short recoil pistol with an eight
round magazine capacity.
Sold for $42,500 (£24,010), an apparently unique Walther prototype
"Hi-Power" 9mm semi-automatic pistol, apparently designed in the
latter years of WWII as a possible replacement for the Walther P38
pistol, is a double-action pistol with a de-cocking lever/safety
catch located on the left side of the frame behind the trigger.
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