doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Sedgley Engraving,

Does anyone have a Sedgley De-lux with engraving on the floorplate that we can look at.

Here are two, Dan's on the left mine on the right. Looks like the same pattern but different engravers? Dan's looks like a deer, mine not so much.

Found another one online,

Dan's looks like a whitetail, your looks like Rudolph. But I like your scrollwork and borders are better. Shading rather than zig-zag... The third a modified version, but all three were done in a hurry for a fixed price. Same pattern, three different hands. Handsome nevertheless
(Dan's photo was under fluorescent light.)

Are the rifles in question engraved else where on the gun or only on the floorplate?
Reason I ask is because if only on floorplate and/or trigger guard maybe Segley was buying the plates from a supplier, maybe in Europe, and then if you wanted an engraved plate he had them in stock.
Just a thought.

I always love to see two guns of the exact same model done by different engravers. Boy, can they ever vary in artistic quality and precise workmanship.

Once had two Zoli boxlock SXS doubles of the same model only about 100 numbers apart. The IC/M 26" was done by a master who must not have had a higher grade gun to work on at the time. The M/F 28" was done by an apprentice (I hope). WORLDS apart in execution.

Everything is engraved on the De-luxe model.

No, my photo was in shaded sunlight with some leaks in the shade! I was trying to keep my body as a shield from any direct sunlight.
Dan

The floor plate cutting style (especially #'s 2&3 because of the heavy use of liner cuts) look alot like Wm. Gough's style of work that he did mostly on contract work after WW1.

His 'second generation' Fox A & B patterns & Colt engravings are a couple of good examples of that style.

Designed to be cut quickly (cheaply) and by apprentice & journeyman engravers he had working for him.

Maybe Sedgely was a customer too. Just a guess of course..

Thanks for posting that Michael - I've never seen an engraved Sedgley before. I would have to describe the engraving as "workmanlike". I've seen a ton of German engraving that was of similar quality - meant basically to fill the space in an attractive way rather than be a tour-de-force.

And I have to say that I like his cheekpiece (of that shape) better than Griffin and Howe's version of it. That reverse curl is really beautiful. These rifles don't take a back seat to anybody in my book.

I not very good with the engraves and if it's not Kornbrath I get confused. There were just not a lot of free lance engravers that I know about back then. Engraving is an area that I should spend more time trying to learn about.

I don't want to start a rant, okay maybe a small one, but one of the Sedgleys was sold as by the hand of a very famous engraver. It's not, but nobody ask ;-).

Was Gough the shotgun guy who worked for many different companies?

Yes, Gough did but I don't recall who at the moment. Fox hired him to redesign the engraving for all grade and collectors pretty much like the earlier examples rather than the Gougized revamps. The story is well covered in McIntosh's A.H. Fox book.

Wm. H. Gough engraved for Parker, Fox, Colt, Meriden, Winchester and others. His 'best' work was good and usually of English scroll or a variant.
His 'production work' which is seen more often than not, is that style of scroll on the floor plates. Alot of liner work on large quick cut layout ment to cover alot of area in a hurry.

The scroll style on the plates themselves is very much 'Gough' layout. That's what caught my attention.
The #2 and 3 more like what you'd see on a Fox second generation layout from his shop with the liner tool used alot instead of the wriggle cut for shading.
I'd hazzard a guess that the 3 are from his shop, and cut by different engravers he had employed at times.

AH Fox hired him to head their engraving dept after WW1. He redesigned most (not all) all original patterns to that larger scroll style. He had a staff of engravers that cut most all the work from his pattern layouts, saving the top jobs for himself understandibly!

He freelansed also doing work for other companys and individuals at the same time. When he moved to Utica NY later as Savage took over Fox, he set up a shop off site to engrave the Fox/Savage guns,,, SxS's, 99's and others and anything else he could get it seems. He did work for Colt & others freelanse at this time too. Even a job or two for Auto Ordnance I believe.
He had a group of engravers working for him then too.

He had a brother, John, that was also an engraver and did work for Winchester.
Their father, Henry, was a Birmingham trained engraver and originally worked for Parker when first coming to the USA.

Kutter,

Can you identify any of the engravers who worked on Lefever guns from circa 1885 through 1920? Here are photos with those described as early generally being pre-1900, late being 1915 or later. The "Cross bolt guns" at the bottom are 1902 - 1906.

http://www.lefevercollectors.com/index.php?p=1_18_Photos

Thanks!