Mauser Parabellum Luger IWA Exhibition Gold Inlaid

Mauser brought the Luger back to life at Oberndorf in the 1970s, and this is what happens when the factory decides to dress one for show. Built as a tribute to the IWA OutdoorClassics exhibition in Germany, it takes the New Model Parabellum and turns nearly every surface into a canvas for gold scroll inlay. The toggle still carries the Original Mauser banner. The frame reads Mauser-Werke Oberndorf GmbH along the lower edge, picked out in gold against deep polished blue.

The finish is the thing you notice first. A high-polish blue runs across the receiver, toggle, barrel, and frame, dark and mirror-like, and the gold scrollwork flows over all of it without crowding the lines of the gun. The engraving sits in that restrained exhibition register, more decorative border than full coverage, which lets the Luger's geometry stay in charge. Gold plating carries through to the trigger, safety lever, takedown lever, magazine release, and the toggle knobs, so the controls flash against the dark steel every time the light moves.

Chambered in 7.65mm Parabellum, the original Luger caliber, with a 4 inch barrel that keeps the balance right where the design intended. The raked grip angle, the sculpted toggle action, the slim barrel profile, all of it reads pure Luger before you ever get to the embellishment.

The grips set it apart. They're cut from a pale ivory-tone material, scrimshaw-style scrollwork inked across both panels, with a gold medallion bearing an entwined monogram at the center. A wood plug caps the heel. It has the look of a European presentation arm from a century earlier, translated onto a gun built in the modern Mauser shop.

It comes in its fitted leather presentation case with red velvet lining, a takedown tool, the Mauser Garantiekarte, and the factory Parabellum manual. For a collector chasing the decorated end of Mauser's Luger revival, this is the kind of piece that rarely surfaces.