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Early war manufacture by having the safety on the slide,i think all their records were destroyed so findind information is probably all but immpossible.I had a second cousin who got into collecting german weapons in the early 50's
when people would throw in a Luger to sweetin the pot on a deal.He had a 38h,serial number 1,engraved with ivory grips with a gold swastika and couldnt find out who got it first.
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Hi m.p.driver,
Several things to mention:
1/No, it isn’t an early war Sauer H, but a late war. SN 457486 was made in 1944.
2/ No, Sauer’s records were not destroyed, they are still there, i. e. in the Suhl archive. But there are no special records about factory engraved pistols.
3/ Regarding Sauer H # 1: I can tell you, who was the first owner: a GI who ordered the engravings after “liberation” of the Sauer plant in April 1945. When US troops arrived in Suhl, thousands of half finished Sauer Hs were present. The were assembled for the GIs (serial number range 507.xxx to 513.xxx approximately). All these “GI souvenir” Sauers don’t have any military acceptance markings and most don’t have proof markings (eagle/N). When they came to half finished parts not having serial numbers, a totally new SN range began, starting with 1 ending at 700 approximately. Such pistols are shown in the book “J. P. Sauer & Sohn – A study on automatic pistols”, volume 1 by Jim Cate and Nico van Gijn. There are shown e.g. # 1 (!), #4, #22, #31, #32.
The # 1 shown in said book (page 366) is a plain variation and having no engravings at all. But maybe, the numbering in this chaotic time (April until July 1945) had additional number ones. There are several “GI souvenir” pistols of this period known having rich engravings made for some Chesterfields by German engravers.
You can easily distinguish an engraved “German SS general’s pistol” from a “GI souvenir” pistol: are proofs eagle/N present on frame and slide: then, it is maybe (!) an original engraving. But when no proofs are present: then the first name of the “SS general” was Joe, Mike or Bob.
Regards
Martin