Sterlingworth Straight Stock Configuration

[Cat955]

Hello,

New to the forum. I recently came across the Sterlingworth 12 gauge shotgun for sale posted below. The shotgun is sporting a straight stock along with a single trigger and ejectors. I have looked at the checkering on the stock and tried to compare it with known checkering patterns on various sites. I cannot find a single match for this particular pattern. Anyone out there that may have some insight on this? Very nice gentleman said it was a custom made gun.

[Researcher]

That stock and forearm are definitely after-market work. The Philadelphia era Sterlingworths only came in standard configurations and with a capped pistol grip stock. From the 1913 Sterlingworth folder --

1913 Sterlingworth Ejector --

From 1927 A.H. Fox catalog --

1928 vintage Sterlingworth --

[Cat955]

Thank you for the information; you are always an awesome source of vintage sxs knowledge. The checkering looked different than anything else that I could find on any Sterlingworth or even higher graded guns. The seller said that it was a custom made gun... but "custom made" covers a lot of ground. Even if a letter were ordered, I wonder if it would indicate "custom checkering" etc....any ideas?

Thanks Again!!

[Researcher]

I'm 99.99% certain that the A.H. Fox Gun Co. wouldn't do "custom work" on a Sterlingworth. The Sterlingworth was a "Made for Stock" to "Standard Specifications" gun to be sold over the counter at sporting goods stores & hardware stores and by mail-order houses.

To get custom work you would have to order a graded gun. Here is an example of one of about a dozen of the more outrageous factory custom order guns which were made for a number of Seattle heavy hitters, all 30-inch barrel 20-gauges with cheek-piece stocks with special carving and very special engraving. The are listed as AE Specials --

202136 AESpecial 01.jpg (58.98 KiB) Viewed 1389 times

202136 AESpecial 02.jpg (62.64 KiB) Viewed 1389 times

202136 AESpecial 04.jpg (63.67 KiB) Viewed 1389 times

202136 AESpecial 10.jpg (10.18 KiB) Viewed 1389 times

[Cat955]

Great pictures!! That is some very interesting engraving and checkering! Thanks Again!!

[Jeff S]

Wow! Thanks Dave. I don’t believe I have seen those pictures before.

[Researcher]

These 30-inch 20-gauges that I call "Joshua Green Guns" have been several of my Cards of the Month -- July 2010, April & May 2013, November 2014, January 2017, and February 2018. At the 2014 winter Las Vegas show, one of our members brought this gun made for Seattle Judge John B. Gordon for our AHFCA display table. See the Spring 2014 Newsletter pages 12 & 13.

Joshua Green's personal gun, the one just before Judge Gordon's gun, has been completely redone with gold added to the engraving and restocked in some spectacular wood. It sold by Julia's some years ago.

My first introduction to these guns was in the later 1960s when I saw the Joshua Green Jr. gun, 202650 (April 2013), in the gunsmiths department at Warshal's Sporting Goods. It had a broken stock and they sent it to Fajen for a new stock. A few years later I saw it again in Bill English's gunsmith shop in the sporting goods department of Frederick & Nelson department store in downtown Seattle. Apparently, the single trigger no longer worked in the new Fajen stock.

[Sporrns]

WOW, what great guns! Love the scroll only receiver sides engraving and the date-carved stock cheeks!! Kevin

[jolly bill]

WOW, what great guns! Love the scroll only receiver sides engraving and the date-carved stock cheeks!! Kevin

Yes, absolutely, what Sporrns/Kevin said above. Gorgeous!

[Cat955]

I am continually amazed at the craftsmanship and devotion of time and energy that it took to create these incredible firearms from over a century ago!! When you see pieces like this how can you not succumb to the "double gun disease"!!