Restored Post 54: The Mystery of Lewis Holster -- SOLVED!

The Lewis holsters are as well-known as their Clark counterparts, and are less commonly encountered on auction sites if one wants to collect them. And very hard to tell apart from the front side! But, doggone it, we know f-all about who Lewis was or his company.

UNTIL NOW.

Thanks to a friend of holstory who has shared the only known Lewis Police Equipment catalogue, the owner/operator has been identified as Adolphus E. Lewis born London, England in 1895. He first appears in leathergoods in the 1940 US Census (although not in his prior Census appearances); then again in the 1950 Census along with his son-in-law who was Bill Damuth; as a salesman for his holster and leather shop. And Damuth's name is that shown at the top of the Lewis catalogue's cover; and so it was that finding Damuth in the '50 Census led to finding Lewis at his side. A prior search wouldn't have helped other holstorians: the contents of the 1950 census have only been public a few years now.

Above, the first appearance of the 'police equipment co.' appellation is Lewis' own appearance in the city directory, at his home address in Monrovia; a suburb of L.A. that was also home to many others including Bianchi, Safariland, and Blazer (Wolfram) in the '60s. This Lewis catalogue is estimated to be circa 1960.

The phone number and the address eventually will help to precisely date this catalogue, but so far I've found only conflicting information about when the MAdison prefix was replaced. For now it appears this catalogue is circa 1959, with one source saying the prefix was still in place that year; plus knowing that Ed Lewis died in L.A. 1958 and our seeing only Damuth's name on the cover.

54 Lewis Holster.pdf

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Further to dates, I'm intrigued to find this Lewis crossdraw that is marked for the 2-1/2" K frame that I expect was the Combat Magnum. This leads to more dating certainty because we KNOW the CM was introduced in 2.5" in 1966 with a few produced in 1963 (Wiki). Lewis Holster is mentioned in a Cooper book of 1966; and then the final appearance of the company in L.A. newspapers that was 1971, for the company's bowling team. I reckon that was the end of the Lewis operation. Damuth lived until 1994.

With the strong similarity of Clark and Lewis holsters, we have to consider that Lewis Police Equipment, like the typical uniform store of that era, made neither holsters nor uniforms nor equipment; and instead these were made for the Lewis shop by the Clark sons who survived father E.E. Clark -- but with Lewis' mark. We have many other examples of this including especially California's Blazer (Wally Wolfram's company) also being marked for G.F. Cake and F. M. Pitt, two other such uniform stores. Both brands were heavily featured in King Gun Sight's catalogues of the 1940s with a notation in '46 and '47's that Lewis Holsters were 'formerly Clark' and for '48 that notation was gone; E.E. Clark had died that year. In 1959 the Clark sons joined with J.M. Bucheimer's sons to form Bucheimer-Clark, and this company featured many of the Clark designs although none of the Lewis models.

Above and below, the Lewis vertical shoulder holster was distinct from Clark Holster's styles. This pair of 'U' shape piano wire springs later was sophisticated by Bianchi Holster by making the assembly in one piece, thereby deleting the screw-and-post assembly.

Above and below shows that the 'cup' for the cylinder was molded using a pair of plates. We did the same for the Bianchi 2800 duty holster (polycarbonate plates though) but without knowing that Lewis had done it this way already. The (aluminium) plate for the outside of the holster has a "window", while the plate for the inside has the (steel) concave addition; and the one presses the leather into the other via a hydraulic or pneumatic press (hence the blackening of the wet leather on the underside).

Read more in my book titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century -- the Second Edition" that is available at www.holstory.com and printed for you/shipped to you in USA.