Korth Ratzeburg Combat Gold Inlay Revolver With 9mm Exchange Cylinder

Hold a Ratzeburg-era Korth Combat and the first thing you notice is the polish. This one goes further. The cylinder flutes and barrel flats carry running bands of gold inlaid oak leaf, and the right side of the frame wears a gold-filled rampant unicorn set against deep relief oak foliage. That unicorn is the Korth house mark, and seeing it laid in gold rather than rolled into the steel tells you this gun left the shop as a presentation piece, not a working sidearm.

The metalwork is finished in Korth's signature high-luster black, so dark it reads almost like polished obsidian until the light catches the gold. The frame slab shows hand-cut oak leaf and acorn scroll with a gold script monogram worked into the left side. Hammer, trigger, and the squeeze-style cylinder release are all finished in gold, warming up an otherwise very dark gun. The barrel is roll-marked .357 Magnum in gold lettering. Underneath the frame sits the gold-bordered Made in W. Germany Waffenfabrik Korth Ratzeburg/LBG plate that collectors look for first.

The grips are smooth ivory-tone, shaped in the full Combat profile that fills the hand and tames .357 recoil. Against the black and gold, they read bold and clean.

And then there's the second cylinder. This one ships with a factory-fitted 9mm exchange cylinder, engraved and gold-inlaid to match the gun it belongs to. Swapping calibers on a Korth is a hand-fit affair, and the matching gold work on the spare cylinder means it was cut for this revolver specifically. The set lives in its fitted Korth presentation case with the blue velvet lining and the embossed Präzision medallion in the lid.

For a collector chasing the best of Ratzeburg production, a gold-inlaid Combat with its matching exchange cylinder is the kind of thing you wait years to find.