POTD: Not The Roth Steyr, The Smaller Older Brother – Roth Sauer
Sam.S 11.13.23
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! The Roth Sauer pistol was an oddball early 1900s semi-auto designed by Czech engineer Karel Krnka, bankrolled by Austrian Georg Roth, but ultimately produced in small numbers by J.P. Sauer & Sohn in Germany. It fired a proprietary 7.65x13mm round from a 7-shot magazine using a super complex long recoil locking system – way more complicated than it really needed to be! The elongated cartridge was similar to another 7.65mm round from Roth’s buddy Frommer, since Roth worked with both designers. The striker-fired mechanism was also pretty innovative for the time, sorta like what Glock uses today. Markings suggest some police use, including in German South West Africa. But they made less than 3000 before WWI broke out.
“Not to be confused with the later military pistol, the Roth Steyr, very few of these pistols were made. The serial numbers consisted of a prefix letter and numbers from 1-999. The magazine was loaded from the top of the gun. Marked “PATENT/ROTH” over the chamber, “J.P. SAUER & SOHN, SUHL” on top of the barrel sleeve, and with the Sauer logo of a man with a large club on top of the top rear of the frame and both checkered hard rubber grips. The serial number is marked on the butt and there is a German commercial “crown/N” Nitro proofmark on the right side of the frame.”
Lot 451: Rare Roth Sauer Semi-Automatic Pistol. (n.d.-j). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/51/451/rare-roth-sauer-semi-automatic-pistol.
