SOLD - Very Rare Armand Gavage Pistol

11/20/23 - This is a super rare, "lunchbox special" example of the Armand Gavage pistol from WW2. This pistol has no test proofs or waffenamts, and was never finished. So presumably, this example was left on the factory floor or "smuggled out in a lunchbox" as it did not complete testing/inspection. It's in the proper German serial range, and one of only a few thousand ever produced. There are five other known examples without proof marks that were left in the white, with one of them being only two digits off from this one. The pistol is in good condition otherwise, and the bore is clean with strong rifling. The grips show age and handling wear but no cracks. More information provided below:

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The Leige, Belgian produced Armand Gavage was produced from May, 1940 – September, 1944 with both Belgian and German test proofs (no Waffenampts). The serial number range was from 19 - 4612, so less than 4600 were ever manufactured. Two types of grips were used – pressed horn (appears black) and wood as are on this pistol. Jan Still’s Luger Forum has a database showing this serial number (3188) right in the middle of Nazi occupied produced AGs Armand Gavage 7.65mm pistol survey? | Jan C. Still Lugerforums Post #55) In addition, of the reported 81 AGs, this pistol falls into a very small group of 9% that have no markings and only 4 are “in the white” – SN: 1524,3697,3188,3896,&4414. When you put this together based on those listed in the latest 7/8/22 database and extrapolate this out to a total of 4600 pistols, you won’t find but maybe 20 other AGs “in the white” without any Belgium or Nazi test proofs. Colonel Whittington’s Book, Volume 2 rates this Armand Gavage on a rarity scale of 1 to 5 as a “5” indicating the rarest WW2 pistol to be used by the Nazis. To be manufactured under Nazi occupation and used by the Belgian\French resistance forces with a population of maybe 20 with only 4 others actually known, this pistol is a unicorn. It doesn’t take much speculation that this gun was taken off the assembly line and smuggled out of the AG plant after production but before it was finished, blued and Nazi test proofed. The magazine is blued and not the correct nickel plated type further indicating that it was smuggled out of the factory before getting the correct magazine at the end of production. The mag has 6 witness holes as the original nickel mag and enters and exits the mag well without any issues. This pistol was reported to the AG database on 10/21/16 on post 36 on the link below. Posts 37-39 indicate it could well have been a resistance gun by Anthony Vanderlinden on the following link as were some of the other similar documented Belgian wartime “in the white” pistols (FN 1922s, Hi Powers, etc.) https://www.lugerforums.com/threads/armand-gavage-7-65mm-pistol-survey.38243/page-2 which seems reasonable. Who knows, it may have shot a few Nazis in its days! This exact field stripped pistol is shown in this link along with the previous owner’s comments: Armand Gavage | Jan C. Still Lugerforums This is a well-documented very rare pistol used by the resistance forces against the Nazis with their own weapon.