Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The Co. President's Rifle

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015/11/the-company-presidents-rifle-fanciest-savage-ever/

Very Cool!

Mike

Yeah! But would it kill a dink? Like my tomato stake. GW :

Yup, just saw it myself. It's always nice when the 99 gets some recognition.

Says he was president in 1956, but the rifle is gold trigger post-mil crap...I would have returned it for a real 99

Arthur sold most of his shares of Savage Arms in 1905, that's why I like the 1895's so much, after 1905 they weren't true Savages in my book. In 1938 he took his own life. Such a tragic loss for someone who worked so hard to open his own firearms factory and then sell it ten years later. The concept was there and he followed through with it till it got big, then sold it off for a large profit, you see that a lot these days so he's no better than a CEO selling off his steel plant honestly. Can't hold it against him, he went on to design a lot of different patents and made them work as well but as far as Savage Arms went it stopped in 1905, any presidents afterwards are just a business, just my .02.

I am not sure Arthur Savage left the company with a lot of money, I think he may have let the other investors he brought in to start the company have more power than he had himself. A newspaper article from 1907 about Arthur Savage suing Savage Arms for back wages mentions that he was under contract with Savage Arms as a manager and that the board relieved him of his duties before the end of his contract with his replacement telling him in early 1905 'to remove his effects form the company office'. Savage Arms continued paying his wage for a time but not until the end of the contract - he sued them for these back wages and won. During this court case a local church that Arthur had been renting a house added an attachment to the suit to get rent that he had left town owing them.



Here are some other articles-

And Arthur was never President of Savage Arms/Savage Repeating Arms/Savage Arms Corp/etc.

nice bit of archival history there GeneB, Thanks for being the consummate Savage/Stevens archivist!

Back to that rifle, it just does not have the eye appeal to me that the very early Enoch Tue engraved guns do, I like the fine lower relief lines of his engraving over almost all of the work of later engravers. I also like the less exaggerated curves of the wood on very early guns. Even the Dodge rifle, which has to be considered in any discussion on the 'fanciest Savage ever' seemed way to much to me - Dodge rifles


(PS I do't know how to take Arthur Savage's skipping out on rent owed to a church, first time I ever heard of a church suing anyone for money, they usually are considered charitable institutions.)

I have a copy of a letter from Arthur on company stationery and he signed it as "Gen. Mgr.". It is dated Jul 5, 1899.

JeffG it says the rifle was presented in 1967 thus the gold trigger. It appears to have a lot of features used in later presentation/commemorative Savage rifles. Tom.

I agree that Enoch Tue's work is much, much better than anything done later. Though the Dodge rifle was done by Gough, I think.

That rifle is almost identical to Ron Coburn's rifle. Ron's serial number is slightly higher and the engraving on the bottom of the receiver doesn't have any inscription.
Both rifles use a much deeper version of the 99PE engraving with the animals gold-plated and the Indian head on the bottom of the receiver added. The PE only has scroll work on the bottom of the receiver.
Ron's rifle appears in my book and on the back cover. The front cover has a pic of a Enoch Tue "F" engraved rifle.
David

That thing's beggin' to be a .284. Lemme at it!

Pretty tall order since it's a rotary mag. A 7-08 maybe? Sort of a .284.

Would require a donor rifle.

I remember Joe Falcon as he was president when I first started at Savage. He was a tall slender well groomed gentleman who took over after Fred Hickey had passed away. I do not know who engraved the rifle, for certain it was done outside of the company. The wood however was carved by Mitzie Bielen who was our A.H. Fox gunsmith and was the only one who had the skills to do fancy work. The scrolls on the wood are identical in part to a reproduction Stevens Favorite that hangs in the company museum.

Gene, you had brought to light with me this court case regarding Arthur Savage a couple of years ago. I furnished you copies of the documents that led to his dismissal. Why don't you let the forum members in on that circumstance.
It is true that Arthur was not the founder of the company. The founders were a group of investors. Arthur was an employee and was employed as general manager, inventor, traveling man and inspector and was paid $30.00 per week in all capacities. He also received royalties for the 1895 and 1899 under contract on a diminishing , sliding scale with the exclusive right to use his name in the production of arms and ammunition. JTC

Great info! Thanks, JTC. The checkering on that rifle is wonderful, I like that style.

Sad to hear Arthur making a $30 salary, though that was probably 3x the average salary of a working man in 1900.

John, I have shared some of that information, I have been going to contact you to ask if you wished any restrictions on it's use before doing much more with it.

The information from John is on the dealings between Arthur Savage & son and Stevens Arms about the production of a gun design. I did not interpret the information as the reason for his firing, but as the reason Savage Arms felt justified to stop paying him even though his contract had not officially ended. The newspaper article from 1907 says that after Arthur W. Savage left "the employ of the defendant, he invented another gun, or improvement". This gun design appears to have been what became the Stevens Gallery 80. That design copies the bolt locking and lifter design of the Browning designed Winchester Model 1890 almost exactly even though from outward appearance one would not think they would have any similarities at all (and even though the mention in court used the term "improvement" there are just to many issue with it to say it improved on anything). The major patents on the 1890 were to expire in 1907 and that is the year the Gallery 80 was introduced.

John has copies the contracts between the Savage's and Stevens Arms concerning the Gallery 80. The original contract was written with Arthur W. Savage named, it was then rewritten with the same date in the name of his son, Arthur J. Savage. That first contract in Arthur J. Savage's name was signed by Arthur W. Savage, all later correspondence was signed by Arthur J. Savage (in very much better hand writing). My thoughts are that this was all done to avoid any legal issues with Savage Arms due to any agreements Arthur W. had made with them. The patents for the Gallery 80 are also all in A. J. Savage's name.

The Gallery 80 had some issue and was a failure, so Savage Arms might actually have benefited from Stevens Arms investing in it, instead of something that would have been more competitive, than if they had gotten the rights to it. Some of the last correspondence between Arthur J. Savage and Stevens Arms was about the decision to discontinue the Gallery and what was to be done with an inventory of several hundred unsold rifles, Stevens Arms also had the No 70 Visible Loader by then.

About 1912 there were a couple other gun designs that were patented in Arthur J and Basil Savage's names that were sold to Sears, Roebuck & Company and manufactured by the Sears owned Meriden Arms company. Again I think likely these were actually designed by Arthur W. Savage. A 1914 Sears, Roebuck & Company catalog gives design credits to A. J. and Basil but the design for the Meriden Model 15 pump 22 was later acquired by Mossberg and they had an ad for the rifles giving credit for the design to Arthur W. Savage. The patents for the Meriden Model 15 expired in 1929 and the design was copied by Savage to make the Model 29. The Model 29 is one of the few Savage Arms guns to not have any patents stamped on it, Savage Arms did not use any patents of their own for it.

Another point of interest on what Gene said regarding Mossberg, is that Oscar Mossberg worked for J. Stevens Arms before starting his own firm and moving to Connecticut. JTC