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Norton Gallery Reply...

1836 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Pete E., 
P
Followed-up with the suggestion to contact the Norton Gallery folks and ask about the provenance of the Norton .45 luger...prior to its 1960's surfacing and sale to the Norton Gallery folks.

Here is the nice reply I received from them :

(Begin quote)

Dear Mr. Ebbink:

Thank you for requesting background documentation/information, etc. on our Luger .45 cal. pistol. There has been much speculation about the number of pistols actually made for the 1907 trials, but as far as I know, no positive documented proof has arisen.

I'm afraid there is not much I can add to the information already posted about our #3. It was acquired by Harry Jones from Ross Egles of Burlington, Ontario, Canada in July, 1960. Mr. Norton acquired it from Mr. Jones in that same month. We know nothing about its history from 1907 to 1960, nor do we know of any Luger experts who may have actually seen the pistol while it was in Mr. Jones' possession. As you may, or may not know, Harry Jones was a leading authority on Lugers having written several books on the subject. I seriously doubt that Mr. Norton would have asked for any other opinions as to the gun's authenticity.

I am sorry that we don't have any more history on our pistol to post on the Luger forum. If any should come to light, I will be more than happy to post it.

Sincerely,

Jerry Bloomer
Public Relations
R.W. Norton Art Gallery
4747 Creswell Ave.
Shreveport, LA 71106-1899
Phone: 318-865-4201
Web: www.rwnaf.org

(End quote)

I would have added it to the on-going discussion thread, but see that is now closed.
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Edward Tinker
Nice reply from Jerry, I met him earlier this year, very nice guy. This is nice information to get, although not a lot to add to what Mike and Jan stated.

I closed the other thread, as it appeared to me to be heading towards no answers... And I believe that the info that Jan collected, stated and showed in pictures was the best information gathered in one place thus to date.

Ed
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Jan C Still
Pete
Thanks for the Norton Gallery information. As expected, it verifies Mike Jones statements in the original article.

The Norton Luger is shown for all to see in Harry Jones book "Luger Variations"(4th Edition, 1975) in the color frontispiec section. It is stated that "In 1960 Norman Lee, Harry and Anne Jones fired this Luger 150 times." This photograph and caption show that the Norton Luger was in the posession of Harry Jones in 1960.
Jan
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P
Hi Jan,

Under this same colored photograph is the caption that reads as :

“ 1906, CAL. 45 ACP: U.S. Test Luger ”

I guess this is where this luger student got the impression that this was a Trials guns and why I started asking about the documentation to support this caption. I actually had been asking this question on the Luger Forum back 2 years ago, as well.

But you are correct...I mis-read M. Jone's previous postings on this Board. Nothing he stated claimed Trials-provenance. I apologize for my carelessness in reading the postings.
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M
Pete,

What makes you think this gun was not used in the trials?
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P
Hi Mike,

Absolutely nothing has convinced me it was not used at the 1907 Trails. Equally, no documentation has been put forth to show that it was.
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