Arms, Armor and Militaria

7.65mm. 4.125" barrel. SN: 3005. Blued finish, checkered hard rubber grips. Single action striker fired blow forward fixed barrel pistol with front strap grip safety, slide notch rear sight, fixed front sight and heel magazine release. This pistol was professionally restored by Gale Morgan. Crown/N proofs on right side of frame and slide. Schwarzlose machine gun logo is present on the right rear of slide and the pistol is further marked in script on the left side of the frame A.W. Schwarzlose GmbH Berlin. A single magazine is included.

One of only three known commercially available blow-forward action pistols, Andreas Schwarzlose patented this design in 1908. Known mostly for his M1907 and M1907/12 machine gun designs, Schwarzlose only produced this pistol model from 1908 to about mid 1910. Despite its unusual design that reportedly caused sharp recoil and safety concerns, the 1909 was a minor success and sold about 8,000 pistols before Schwarzlose declared bankruptcy. According to Der Waffenschmied (a German weapons newsletter), Schwarzlose locked his factory doors in response to worker strikes and went bankrupt around May 1910. Schwarzlose's stock of pistols was later bought by G.C. Dornheim G.m.b.H. and sold for extremely low prices according to an October 1910 issue of Der Waffenschmied. It is speculated that most of the pistols after serial number 3541 were not proofed until sometime in 1912 after Schwarzlose had already relinquished control of the company. Early examples are often seen with Crown/B or Crown/U proofs and fully checkered grips. The Crown/N proof was not used until 1912, and most late models will have 2/3 checkered grips. In some advertisements from around 1913-1914, there are modified Model 1909's found listed as "Warner Schwarzlose" pistols sold by the Warner Arms Corporation in New York City. {C&R}