April 11-13, 2023 Firearms and Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/12/2023
1 of only approximately 600 LM-4 pistols hand built by Semmerling Corp of Boston, Massachusetts during the 1980s. Semmerling's LM-4 sought to fill the niche of a reliable subcompact backup gun should the user find themselves in a precarious situation. While appearing to be a semi-automatic pistol, the LM-4 is a manually operated double action pistol, with the slide having to be manually pushed forward and pulled back after each shot. This example, is stamped "MOD. LM-4/ PATENTS PENDING" followed by "SEMMERLING CORP./ BOSTON, MASS." on the left side of the slide, with the right marked "CAL. .45 ACP" followed by "STD. MIL. SPEC. CTG. ONLY" above the serial number. Frame exhibits a matte black finish, while the slide and frame pins are blued. Frame is mounted with 2-piece checkered black plastic grips. This example is accompanied by an original spare small parts set, nice array of paperwork that includes an original instruction manual, 2 Semmerling LM-4 advertisement pamphlets, several period magazine articles, as well as several documents addressed to and from Captain Leigh R. Rich, of the United States Army Reserve that include a letter from Rich requesting a pamphlet of the LM-4 for his keepsake, a carbon copy & photo copy of the check Rich mailed for his LM-4, a True Value receipt for said LM-4, a letter from Semmerling Corp. that accompanied the brochure mailed to Rich, as well as a photo of Philip R. Lichtman in his workshop. CONDITION: Excellent, with metal components retaining nearly all of their original factory finish, showing few minor superficial marks from handling and storage. Brilliant mirror bore, exhibiting well defined rifling throughout. Grips are excellent. An very fine example of an extremely limited production, high quality, handmade LM-4 pistol.
Paperwork
Correspondence and advertisments