Manufactured in 1942, the Liberator pistol was conceived, developed and mass produced within the span of about six months. Proposed by the Joint Psychological Warfare Committee in March of 1942 (reportedly on prompting of Winston Churchill, who was inspired by the book "The Moon is Down" by Steinbeck), the complete Liberator package came in at less than $3 and was meant to be thrown out of a plane flying low over occupied territory in a cardboard box coated in heavy wax for waterproofing and bearing an unambiguous picture of the pistol mid-discharge on the face. On opening the box, the recipient would find a breechloading pistol, ten rounds of ammunition, a dowel rod and a simple comic strip style instruction manual showing them how to stick it to whatever variety of the man was oppressing them. The pistol in that box, aptly represented by this lot, was produced by the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors making heavy use of machine stampings welded around a seamless tube barrel. The resulting handgun was intended for a limited amount of use, ideally to be used to steal a better weapon from an occupier or salvage said weapon from the occupier's corpse. This particular pistol was from the personal collection of Ralph Hagan, author of the book "The Liberator Pistol" (copy included), which features this pistol on the cover. Included with the pistol is an original box.

Excellent showing 90% original phosphate with a few areas of brown on the surface, with some light scratches and general evidence of rough manufacture. The original box is very good as stained with a piece missing out of one end. Mechanically excellent.