Thread: Cactus Jack
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Old July 26, 2008, 11:06 PM   #5
James K
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Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
This doesn't answer the question, but the name "Motte" triggered an old memory and maybe this will help explain the difficulty in researching those kinds of markings.

I once saw a Luger at a gun shop with the backstrap engraved "Feldmarschall Johann von Mott." The shop owner wanted some fabulous price for the genuine German war souvenir taken from a Field Marshal. But the name Mott is not German, it is one of those north of England double-consonant names (ex: Diana Rigg, Ian Hogg).

Having access to a very good library at the time, I found a list of all German field marshals from the mid-19th century on. No Mott. Then I checked "Wer ist Wer", the German Who's Who, and "Wer war Wer" or Who Was Who. No Mott. So I tried the telephone book and started to call the four or five Motts listed. The second one was a John Mott, a gun "nut" with whom I later became friends. It had been his Luger, and another friend had had it engraved as a joke. He later sold the gun. I told him where it was, but he wasn't interested, having taken up varmint rifles.

So those markings might mean a valuable collector item. Or not.

Jim
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