Curious on XE engraving side of frame

[vaturkey]

Just curious. Were AH Fox XE grades always engraved with a Fox (head up or down) and with Quail (think they are quail) on one side and Ducks on the other side? Been looking at a lot lately and that's all I've seen out there. PS. Not counting the CSMC XE's which had lots of different engraving patterns.

Double PS. Does the Fox head up or down have to do with anything in specifics or was it luck of the draw on what the engraver was in the mood to do. Thanks

[Researcher]

I've seen a few XE-Grades with a Pigeon in the oval on the bottom. Wish mine had the Pigeon --

[ROMAC]

I've been told that the deeply chiseled ones like mine mostly had the head down fox.

[vaturkey]

Guess nothing else on the side of the frames except ducks/quail. Thought I had seen grouse or perhaps a pheasant on the side of the frames, but that may have been a CSMC gun. Just seemed to me that if someone bought a small bore Fox in the golden years they might have wanted something besides waterfowl on the side of the frame. XE's are interesting guns indeed. Happy Friday.

[Researcher]

At least the Ansley H. Fox XE-Grade has some waterfowls on one side. In NID Ithacas you got the same Snipe on one side and a generic upland bird on the other whether your No. 3 was a 28-gauge --





or a Magnum-Ten --





Same with the Ithaca NID No. 2, here a 28-gauge and a Super-Ten --

[3birddogs]

my NID 16 4E has a pheasant on one side and a flying duck on the other. My grade 3 Lewis12 ga has a setter on one side and pointer on the other, and duck on the floorplate

[FOXIST]

vaturkey, Ive seen two XE's with dogs the side of the action instead of birds. I believe both were 16 bores. Like Researcher I handled a 12 bore that had a flying pigeon on the bottom. The Pigeon was an exact duplicate of the Pigeon you would find on the bottom of most Parker Bros. SC grade single barrel traps. Ive noticed the Quail and Ducks can be found different sides of the action on some XE's.

[vaturkey]

vaturkey, Ive seen two XE's with dogs the side of the action instead of birds. I believe both were 16 bores. Like Researcher I handled a 12 bore that had a flying pigeon on the bottom. The Pigeon was an exact duplicate of the Pigeon you would find on the bottom of most Parker Bros. SC grade single barrel traps. Ive noticed the Quail and Ducks can be found different sides of the action on some XE's.

Those would be interesting to see for sure. Wonder if they setters or pointers or GSP's Guessing they were special ordered by the customer.