Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors My new 1899

Joe, I believe that beautiful shooting iron deserved to serve its purpose and be hunted at least once. Back in 2014, I took my 1899-B (lettered Aug of 1899) and filled my tag. People at work said I was crazy to hunt a 115 year old rifle. When it fulfilled its destiny, it went back in the safe looking exactly as it looked prior to the hunt. It's a gratifying feeling to add another chapter in the story of a 115 year old fine shootin iron. Just my 2 cents.

Often times proof is elusive.
But let's go with Gough for a moment in '36.
Spittler rec'd a rifle in 1909 with pistol grip, T/D and fancy wood.
27 years later the owner decides to send it back to Savage for engraving and checking? Which goes against "the story" from the seller.
I honestly would be surprised if the E engrave pattern survived within Savage until '36. The vast majority of Tue's work was done before 1917 and that pattern would have existed then. Of course, a person could pull the pattern from an existing E engraved rifle and proceed.
A person can connect whatever dots they wish. The above scenario seems unlikely at this point.

That moose looks just like the King rifle moose to my eye. Maybe that is a clue. King a Spittler appear to have overlapped in time with Savage. King ~1900-1910. Maybe the same person engraved both of them? 1906 &1909? William Henry Tue immigrated in 1909 and worked at Savage as an engraver. Hmmmm....

Spittler wasnt the owner in 36. A Ray Harvey from Utica NY is the one who had the work done and the guy i bought it from said he bought it from the Harvey family.

Welp, if you haven’t already I’d go back and shake the Harvey tree some more and see what what falls out.

Somebody or somebodies knew the exact story of this gun but sadly the exact story is most likely gone to the grave with those people and lost to history at this point. Every time the gun changes hands over the years the trail grows colder and colder. 1909 was 114 years ago and 1936 was 87 years ago. Who engraved and did the woodwork? It would be interesting to know but at the end of the day does it really matter now?

Now it just is what it is.

Beautiful....

Sure, if you are a curious person with interest in Savage Arms history and its many tentacles. Figuring out puzzles like this is "the buzz".
Without it, West, Carr, Stern, Brower, Murray, Royal & Reynoldson Savage books would not exist. Or many of the interesting posts on this forum. This thread included.
Tedious research is not for everyone. Some do it, some read it, hopefully all enjoy it.

The scrolls don't look like any of the 99K's I've seen. I think Spittler did the engraving at the time the rifle was produced. The outer rings on some of the Spittler rifle aren't a smooth circle. They bulge a little. The engraving on the K's vary quite a bit, probably because Gough had a number of engravers working for him and the K's were done by several different people but after looking at photos of quite a few K's I don't the Spittler rifle was done by any of them.
No matter who did the engraving it's a neat rifle.

Are there any known guns with engraving that can be positively attributed to Spittler?
It’s all just speculation without a known example to compare Joe’s gun to.

not that I know of. It just doesn't look like any other Savage engraver

What do you "speculate"?
We'll add it to the pile and try to sort it out.

Did anyone take the time to look at the engraved Newton Rifle on the NRA Museum website that MIGHT (just speculating here, but please add to the pile) have been engraved by Splitter?

The Newton is mostly rounded surfaces and less engraving overall compared to a flat sided 99. It does have a moose on the trigger guard. ?? Requires more study. Thanks.

Newton engraved rifle

There are stylistic differences among others, but, that looks like the same moose pattern.
Spittler 1909 - left
King 1906 - right
Does it mean anything? Possibly...

How many King Engraved guns have been seen ???

Same moose pattern to me as well, you’re definitely on to something

Only aware of 70152 as claimed King engraved. And some believe Tue had a hand in on it.

For King carved we have these;
11536
13559
30687
31078
33302
44813
45264
46434
70152
123343
132268
133730
184078
Those below 100000 are likely King carved as he moved to Oregon ~1910.
Those above 100000 not sure.
There are likely more....

How many Savages did he own ??

King owned 70132, the 1899C/32-40 in Kansas, plus whatever you have and probably others we are unaware of.
It appears from ledgers that rifles were shipped to King an employee. He is known to have carved rifles for show for Savage & Winchester, himself and potentially others.

What an absolutely beautiful work of art and as a rule, I don't care for engraved rifles. As someone else said, I'd be happy if this was the only rifle in my collection!

I am sure this is nothing new as far as information goes, but I am finding it strange as to why there is no mention of Spittler. Wrong time frame maybe?