Schulhof repeating pistol with forward magazine
Sold in auction (March 2014) for $14,375.00

NSN. Caliber 9mm Gasser/Kropatchek. Repeating pistols were the immediate predecessors to semiautomatic arms. All required a manual movement to chamber the cartridge. After firing, a loading bar or lever would spring back to its original position. Schulhof was credited with having developed several types of repeating pistols in about 1884. This version has a 6.25? octagonal bbl with a drift adjustable front and rear sight. A finger loop lever under the receiver was used to close the bolt. Having traveled to its final position, the trigger, which is most unusually in a Schulhof pistol carried in the finger loop, is pulled automatically to fire the gun unless the loop is manipulated by placing the finger at the front outside the loop. No forward breech opening assist spring. Loading is through a forward frame extension box magazine that is brazed in place and has a curved vertical slot in the right side to accommodate the feed lever and cartridge follower. The cartridges are loaded from a stripper clip (not present) inserted from beneath the magazine box and are tensioned by the leaf spring driven feed lever, which is pivoted internally from above the loading lever. Though awkward and cumbersome by today’s standards, repeater pistols were an important development and provided the foundation for more modern semiautomatics. PROVENANCE: Collection of Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess, ex Visser coll’n, illust. Vom Ursprung der Selbstladepistole p 46/47. CONDITION: The pistol is in-the-white as a prototype and unlikely to have ever been finished. The lightly cleaned surface is still quite bright with minimal oxidative etching or staining. Missing a non functional screw from the left side of the frame, lower surface, just behind the magazine extension. Original walnut grips with bordered coarse checkering. Each panel has a tiny missing chip at the upper front corner.  Bore is smooth, never having been rifled. Mechanically perfect though the finger lever return spring is weak and once opened fully, the mechanism may stick.