Inherited gun info

[cjfisher410]

My dad left me a 12 gauge, 28" fluid compressed steel barrel Fox Sterlingworth with double triggers and full pistol grip. Serial # 114613. If possible, I'd like to know the grade, year of manufacture and value (either sale or insurance). As a novice, I would rate the gun's condition as good to very good. Any and all help appreciated.

[Researcher]

Sterlingworth is the grade. The Sterlingworth was the A.H. Fox Gun Co.'s entry-level gun, made for stock and to standard specifications. From the A.H. Fox Gun Co.'s founding in 1905, the graded guns A- to FE-Grade were stocked to your dimensions in European Walnut, with the choice of straight, half-pistol or full pistol grip and had Krupp Fluid Steel barrels. When the Sterlingworth was added to the line in 1910, some of the money-saving features were that it was stocked to standard dimensions in American Walnut with a capped full pistol grip only and barreled with tubes the company called Sterlingworth Fluid Compressed Steel. With a serial number in the 114xxx range your gun is likely from the late 1920s. Here are the Sterlingworth pages from the 1927 A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalog --

A few years ago, Savage sent the surviving A.H. Fox Gun Co. production cards to the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. You can get a letter with the information from the production card for your gun from them, but the letters are rather spendy for the very limited amount of information on the Sterlingworth production cards.

https://centerofthewest.org/explore/fir ... ds/savage/

A typical late 1920s Sterlingworth production card --

The market for entry-level vintage 12-gauge doubles is pretty poor. There are far more of them than people who want them. Most are worth less to far less than a thousand dollars. It takes a 12-gauge Sterlingworth in near mint condition to bring in the bucks.