doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca 37 grade?

Factory of custom?

Factory $2000 grade?

The lack of barrel rib and engraving on the barrel does bother me.

A $2000 Grade 37T
https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...l--37---2000--grade.cfm?gun_id=101171874
Not $2000 grade checkering

A letter from Cody would answer the question.

When I see an ornate trap model, I just presume the buttstock has been edited.
Sometimes it's the camera, and sometimes it's garnet shellac.

Pics of $2000 and $2500 Grade Model 37s here
https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/ithaca-2500-grade-37t.255273/

The giant scroll loops w/their out or round shapes and crude leafy ornaments remind me of the style of engraving placed onto a lot of the lower grade inexpensive Spanish import SxS
guns of the 60's, 70's etc.
The heavy deep single point shading as well looks familiar.

As noted, no bbl engraving. Expected on a high grade . The wood & checkering certainly doesn't seem in the same class as the engraving tries to suggest
it is even from what little of it I can see.

Yes it has gold inlays, but those small birds and the dog are pre-imprinted on the 37 and most any engraver with a bit of skill can fill in the blanks and make a decent representation of them.
Gold wasn't always $3500 / oz for 24k.

If I had to guess,,either someones personal engraving project on a plain bbl 37. Not uncommon for a starting engraver to lavish a lot of time and effort on an inexpensive to start with non-ribbed gun like this and then wonder why no one wants it.
Or maybe a recv'r sent by Ithaca to Spain in the 60's or 70's to see what they could get for a certain price (cheap!) as far as engraving compared to what they were paying at the time by farming it out here or having it done 'in house'.

I remember Engraver Ralph Alpen did show me an Ithaca 37 receiver 'in the white' that he said was engraved in Spain at one time. This was in about 1972.
He was explaining at the time how some of the Spanish engravers did the gold inlays by using small bits and pieces of gold (crumbs they are sometimes called) to make the figure. Hammering them into place over the roughened surface of the steel.

He wasn't impressed with that process and I remember him also says they used 'kids' (his term) a lot for much of the engraving seen on their low end guns.

Alpen was working for Pedersen Custom at the time as was I. He was still doing farmed out engraving biz from Ithaca as well.

Just some thoughts on this.