Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors There are still unicorns out there....

First and foremost is that the OP has confirmation via factory letter that the pistol is A engraved.
Yes, there can and are subtle variations in patterns, styles and hand engraving. However, I've seen a number of Tue B engraved rifles whose patterns appear identical so he was capable duplicating simple patterns pretty much spot on.
The placement of the scrolling and detail work is all in the right places, the scrolling is noticeably different is all.
Why the variation in JohnL's pistol? Engraver discretion I guess. "Lunch box special"? Possibly requested? JTC sometimes found additional entries for special feature guns. A pic of the actual ledger page may help.
We may never know. At any rate a good example of a rare pistol.

p.s. Scrolling = whorls, pin wheels

That is a possibility.
In 1909 Enoch Tue's nephew William Henry Tue immigrated to the U.S., arrived in Utica and joined his Uncle Enoch working at Savage Arms.
William Henry along with his father William and his Uncles Enoch and James all worked for the Wolverton Rail Works in a variety of capacities including brass work.
Utica records indicate that William Henry was an engraver, checker and inspector while at Savage Arms.
So Pocono's theory may be correct.
Engravers typically were not allowed to sign or initial their works within the factory.
There have been exceptions so get a magnifying glass and go over the entire pistol inside and out looking for marks which may be clues. Low probability, but,...

Thank you all for the replies! To my very inexperienced eyes the engraving looked like that attributed to Gough. However, given the year made that’s just not possible. Maybe it was the nephew? Will give it a much closer look with a mag glass.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here but the photo comparison below between my pistol and an 1899 with Grade A engraving in David Royal's book page 33 looks pretty similar. Mine looks like, "man, do I have to engrave another pistol? Bring on the 1899s" - it is like Tue light but the scrolls and “leaf” outlines look spot on.

They may look similar, but to my eye it does not appear to be the same engraver. ymmv

To me, yours looks like Enoch Tue. Bailey's I would have guessed to maybe be Gough if it didn't letter as being from Enoch Tue.

Well, we probably will never know for sure unless there is more info in the factory letter. At least it is factory engraved A. Thanks for the replies!

Hold on... the rifle pictured above is actually a Model K from the 30's. Three things show in the full picture to verify that. The forearm is post 200,000 (post WWI), finish is not the high luster blue and the barrel has K engraving.

Poconojack and Calhoun get brownie points.

Rick is right. I accidentally used a photo of a 99K and called it an A engraved 1899. I corrected the problem in the second printing of my book.
top pic is the wrong pic in the first printing. lower pic is a Tue engraved 1899 in the second printing.


I think we discussed this here when I was revising the book about three years ago.

So would the 99K rifle have been engraved by Gough?

I guess I need the 2nd edition of your book?

Yes Gough or one of his people. There were small changes made to the K pattern about every time they had a batch engraved.

Approximate engraver timeline...

Gough or his people did almost all of the 99K's. I have a very early one that was done by Enock Tue and John Wright also had one of Tue's engraved 99K's. I did a post sometime late last year with pics of my Tue engraved 99K and one almost as early that was done by Gough or his people. LBK has the second one now.

You guys were right. The factory letter is only a more official version. No other information available but is an official confirmation the pistol was factory engraved. I am grateful to all who replied!

Cool! It's definitely a keeper.

Wow. That letter paid off.

Congratulations.