DE options

[mike campbell]

I read recently that DE's were offered with the option of a hard butt plate or a checkered butt. Having seen only one or 2 in the flesh and but a handful in pictures, I was curious as to how often they are encountered with checkered butts?

Can anyone post a pic of a factory original checkered butt?

[Researcher]

Standard for any graded Ansley H. Fox double from A- to FE-Grade seems to have been the hard rubber butt plate. Usually on the C-grade and above the butt plate screws have a few scratches of engraving. But, it really isn't mentioned in the catalogues.

The 1906 catalogue doesn't mention anything about optional butt styles. The 1907 catalogue offers the Silvers recoil pad for $5 extra on any grade. By the 1911 catalogue they offer the option of a skeleton steel butt plate for $7.50 extra on any grade. By 1913 the skeleton steel butt plate is down to $5 extra. By 1920 the skeleton butt plate is back up to $7.50.

The only mention of a checkered butt I find in any Fox paper is on the SP-/SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Guns from 1935 to 1939.

All the above said, I'm sure that if the purchaser of a DE-Grade requested a checkered butt, that is what he would get. I've only seen three of what I believe to be "original" skeleton butt plates, one on an early B-grade, one on an early DE-Grade and one on a later FE-Grade.

[TOOL MAN]

Mike,

I think you're chances of finding a DE with a checkered butt, are about the same, as getting Michael Vick, to speak at a Humane Society picnic. Hoooooo-Ahhhhhhhh.

Seriously, in my exhaustive search for one of these buggers, I have only seen two that were not "padded". One is the "Schultze" DE Special, presently for sale at Robin Hollow Outfitters for a mere $22.5K. That one has a SSBP, if my memory serves me right. The other rare bird is pictured in our DE grade directory. That straight grip DE with the carved butt stock is really something to behold. Would love to see her in person!!! ---TOOL MAN

[mike campbell]

Thanks for the replies, Fellas.

Researcher,

you said "The 1906 catalogue doesn't mention anything about optional butt styles."

Actually, I was referencing the article by W. Headrick in DGJ, Winter '05, wherein he quotes the 1906 catalog....

"Grade D: Genuine Krupp Fluid Steel barrels; concave matted rib with rotary bolted extension; beautifully figured English walnut stock; straight or pistol grip; Deeley & Edge pattern fore-end; hard rubber or plain checkered butt; ....."

[Researcher]

Headrick is correct, I was looking on the page with the extra barrels, restocking , etc. where in all the later catalogues it mentions the Silvers recoil pad and the skeleton steel butt. The D- and F-grades are not pictured in the little copy of a copy of the 1906 catalogue I got from Bill years ago, just some text.

By the 1907 Campfire catalogue the D-grade text only states -- "THE STOCKS are of selected Circassian Walnut and are rich and dark in color besides being beautifully figured and properly grained." That same text was used through the 1912 Campfire. For 1913 the text changes slightly to -- "THE STOCK is of selected Circassian Walnut, rich in color. uniquely figured and distinctively grained." Again the text stays the same thru the 1927 catalogue. For the 1928 and 29 catalogues the text is again changed slightly to -- "THE STOCK is of selected Circassian Walnut, oil finished, rich in color. uniquely figured and distinctively grained."