Nazi Party Leader Walther PPK with Black Grip

I know! Another Video on Party Leaders but this one is Particularly Unique

Hey guys and welcome to another Walk-in Wednesday. Today I'm really excited to show you a pistol. Actually some of you are going to think how many times is he going to beat this dead horse? Because today I have a Walther PPK, done it many times, Black Party Leader. I've already done several videos on party leaders and I figured I'd never have to cover that topic again. And then Walk-in Wednesday this came in the door on Wednesday and I just have to show it to you because it is extremely unique.

There are several things that make this one particularly unique and it actually relates to other videos. So it kind of reinforces some of the things I've already said. Whenever I talk about the Black Party Leader grip I say it's really hard to tell. A lot of collectors avoid the Black Party Leader grip because they do replicate them and they look really really close to the real thing. In fact, I have to admit I have a hard time distinguishing. I can't distinguish from photographs but if you send it to me usually I weigh them, I check the inside, a variety of things that I'll show you. But this Black Party Leader grip I'm sure is authentic. 

I Am Sure It Is Authentic!

It came out of a collection. The man has had it for 20 years, got it directly from the vet and this reinforces something that I've already talked about. If you go to our videos, look at the video about what happened at the end of the war to the factory, about the GIs coming in, in April of 1945 and they found a bunch of guns that were partially put together. And the GIs finished putting them together and took them home as souvenirs. This is one of the guns that was in the factory at the end of the war. And the vet that brought it back put this gun together from parts that were in the factory.

Left Side First

Let's start with the left side and immediately, first of all, you'll see the condition of this gun. The metal is in the white which means it was never finished. However, some of the parts such as the trigger guard, the trigger, the hammer, even the rear site, you can see they were blued. Again the parts were in the factory; the frame and the slide were not blued. But just check out the condition of this metal. There's not a ding, not a scuff, not a scratch, not any tarnish at all. 

Top-notch Condition

This gun is in the condition, as I like to say, the day this left the factory this is what this gun looked like. It's just amazing. Look at the legend, so that was acid etched on there and I always wondered if they acid etched it before or after. In this case this gun was never finished and the acid etched legend is crystal clear. The bore is obviously immaculate but I have a hard time getting bore shots. Bore 02:56 shards are hard to get as well but bore shots are equally difficult. 

Right Side Next

Let's turn it over, take a look at the right side. I haven't even mentioned the grip the most important part but let's just take a look at the other side. You can see there are no firing proofs. Again, if you follow my videos you know there would be one in the ejection port. There would be one on the slide, right about here, and on the end of the barrel, there would be another eagle N firing proof. Those are all missing, so this gun was put together, never fired, brought home by a GI. 

Look at the Serial Range - It's One of the Last Ones

Also if you look at the serial range, it's one of the last ones known. 430, actually there are a few in the early 431. So 431,000 range there's a few but the 430 range are considered among the very end of the war. 

Close-up of the Magazine

The magazine that came with it, check this out. This is the magazine that came with it. Again in immaculate condition but if you look at the left side of the tube there is no Walther banner. And remember all of them had Walther banners so this was unfinished magazine, they put it together, put it in the gun. If we go back to the right-hand side I mentioned the proof marks are gone but also notice there's no number on the slide. I did check the inside of the slide and it's not numbered there either. So this is an unnumbered slide put on a very late frame.

The Most Important Part

Now let's talk a little bit about the most important part. We know that this is an original Black Party Leader grip because the vet who put this together got this grip from the factory at the end of the war and put it on this gun. Now there are some people who state that the GIs had these grips made up, that the only color they had was black and they had the molds so they went ahead and made some up for the GIs. I don't know how I could prove that, but this GI said this grip was in the factory at the end of the war, he put it together and brought it home. 

A Big Shout Out to Peter

Nobody used this gun and as I said, I know the man who's had this for the past 20 years. He had a very very hard time letting go of it but fortunately out of his love for Legacy Collectibles he sent it to me. And I'm very grateful, thank you very much Peter, shout out to you for this treasure and for sending it my way.

I Hope You Watched That Other Video

Now in order to talk about the grip which we've already done before, so again I don't want to be too repetitive but I have a prop, this is my new studio by the way, I hope you guys like it. We have our own YouTube studio now. We've been doing this a year and we set up a studio and right behind me is one of my props. You'll recognize it if you watched one of my other videos. Remember this party leader presentation case. It's vinyl and it did not come with a gun inside but this time, just for this video I have a Black Party Leader that is on my site right now, not yet sold. 

Let's Compare the Two Grips

I'm going to hold these side by side and take a look at the grips. I deliberately took the screws out, I'm just going to pop the grip off. I would not try this at home without being very very careful. You don't want to break the grip. Most of the money, in this gun that will sell anywhere from $6,500 - $9,500, most of the money is in the grip. So you have to be very very careful, they're brittle, I'll set this one down. This one we don't know the origin, other than it looks all original; this one we know is original.

What's the Difference?

So let's take a look at the differences and again that popped off pretty easily. You're not always that lucky, so you have to be very very careful if you're taking off the grips. First of all, I mentioned weight. If I put this on a scale, we'll start off with the one that we know is original, so we'll call this 'the GI bring back,' this is 1.3; we have this other one that's on our site right now also 1.3. And by the way that's without the screw, I removed the screw. Now the only difference I see in these two grips if we look at them side by side and it's very noticeable, the one that came from the GI is a little shinier. Now that may not be a tell-all because what I've noticed even with the brown grips, is if they've been exposed to a lot of sunlight or if they've been handled a lot they dull down. This one that came from the GI, it still has a shiny laminate finish to it which would easily dull down if it was handled or left out in the sun. This one has dulled down. 

Perfect Eagles

The other thing you want to look at, so we looked at the look both sides, the eagles are absolutely perfect. I don't know how much of a close-up I can get but you can see the eye, you can see the brow over the eye and you can also see the split beak. So on the eagle, you can see the beak in two parts and the eyes, so those are the little details I look for. On the feathers, the outside feather I count six feathers and they're both exactly the same. The wreath is the same. Again the only difference being the one that is a little more worn is a little duller. 

Let's Look Inside the Grips

And then finally what I'm going to look at on the inside of this grip, the metal inserts. So these had metal inserts, some of the fakes do not have the mental insert and that's a dead giveaway. The other thing about some of the fakes and I think it was done on purpose, the screw goes in the wrong direction. So if you see one where the screw goes in the wrong direction of the Black Party Leaders, the screw should go right to left; in some of the fakes the screw goes left to right.

And again I think whoever did that, that's such a rookie mistake, I think they did it on purpose so people could spot the fakes. If you're looking at the metal insert you can actually see it on the side and on the back of the grip. This metal insert, the one from the GI which we know is real, is actually, it's a little bit tarnished, a little dulled down and when I say bright it's almost like you can see yourself in the mirror but this one is in phenomenal shape. The other one you can see the age and that's what you want to see. See how that's pretty corroded and that would tell me that this is much older, it wasn't made recently. 

My Conclusion

So my diagnosis on these two are they both are real party leader grips and it's a good thing because this one is on our website and we give you a letter of authenticity stating that it is all original. This one which came from the factory, brought home by a GI, I always put it in on an angle and then pop it into place. The grips...put the grip screw in, I take a pick and I line it up perfectly; put the pick down in there, line it up perfectly and then put the screw through that way and it should fit nice and tight. You can see tight on the top, tight on the back and this came with this magazine. I'd love to have the finger extension because it looks cool. But since this is the way it came home from the war I don't want to mess with history keep these together and this is a wonderful find. 
 
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