doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Researching an heirloom Fred Adolph Genoa NY 20ga

Even though Petrov told me & strongly informed me to never post on his threads in order to prevent our >>research<< from being mixed:

>>Fred Adolph
Published September 2002

I have resisted writing about Fred Adolph. It’s not that I don’t have enough information. In fact, that’s just the problem. I have too much information. My Adolph file is the thickest of any research file I have, plus I have copies of several of his catalogs. The problem is that there is so much conflicting information on Fred Adolph. After many years I am just now getting a picture of the man and his work. There has never, to my knowledge, been a custom gunmaker in America who was as self-promoting as Adolph. His catalogs are works of art, one numbering sixty-seven pages in length. It’s apparent as soon as you start reading an Adolph catalog and looking at the pictures that every gun in the catalog was for the most part made in Germany for Adolph. The exceptions are the restocking of sporting rifles such as the Krag, 1903 Springfields and Mauser rifles. He sold drillings, double rifles, shotguns, both side by side and over/unders, single barreled trap. Also single-shot pistols made by Webber of Switzerland. How much work was done on these guns in Germany and how much did Adolph do? This has always been the big question. I have seen Adolph guns that were made in Germany with engraving done by R.J. Kornbrath in the United States, and a 1903 Springfield with engraving done in German. I have found no evidence that Fred Adolph did any engraving. Most Adolph guns have a lot of carving in the wood and the workmanship is uniform and appears to have been done by the same hand whether on a 1903 Springfield or a shotgun. I am not sure if any totally completed guns came from Germany. Many would have been imported in the white with possibly an inletted stock blank for him to finish, have engraved, hardened and blued. I do believe if you ordered a custom sporting rifle on your action the work would have been done by Adolph.

Both Whelen and Crossman, writing about Adolph in the sporting press in the early years, attributed all the work to Adolph. This is a mystery to me because they knew better, the proof marks on both action and barrels tell the story. For the purpose of this article I will stay with the sporting rifles and leave the shotguns, drillings, pistols and others for someone else to sort out.

Fred Adolph was born in Glantz, Germany one January 29, 1875. After a basic education he apprenticed to a gunsmith in Silesia, a historic region that is now in southwestern Poland. After his apprenticeship he worked in several European gunmaker firms such as Webber in Zurich, Switzerland, Steyr in Austria and Haenel, Sauer and Schilling, all of Suhl, Prussia (Germany).

Adolph arrived in the US in 1908 with his English-speaking wife Minnie and became a naturalized citizen in 1919. It has been reported that Adolph worked for several different gunmakers in New York State. The only employment I was able to confirm was that he worked for a short time circa 1909-10 at Baker Gun & Forging Company Batavia, NY, makers of the “Baker & Batavia Guns”. He did work during 1910 when living in Rochester for Bausch & Lomb, the optical firm.

About the same time that Ludwig Wundhammer made the first 1903 Springfield Sporter for Stewart Edward White out in Los Angles, California, Adolph made one for Townsend Whelen. (This sporter is a part of the NRA museum collection.) Earlier he had made a Krag sporter for Whelen. With Whelen writing about the fine work of Adolph there was no shortage of customers in these early years. Looking over Adolph’s catalogs and advertising it’s clear that many well known sportsmen of the day bought his guns. Some of his customers were Teddy Roosevelt, Townsend Whelen, E. C. Crossman, Charles Askins Sr., Charles Newton, Henry Ford, George Eastman, and Roy Chapman Andrews (the real Indiana Jones). Adolph’s guns were expensive; a plain 1903 Springfield conversion could cost around thirty-five dollars without stock carving or engraving. Some of his doubles sold for over a thousand dollars which would be several years’ wages for a working man. From a used gun ad in Arms and The Man May, 1919 “$175 Adolph rifle, 30 U.S. 24-ribbed bbl. Krupp, very accurate, handsomely checkered, absolutely perfect inside and out, $95.”

Fred Adolph was one of the first in the US to advocate mounting a short telescopic sight with a large field of view on sporting rifles. He designed high velocity cartridges and collaborated with Charles Newton on cartridge development. He also introduced rustless steel barrels and was the sole representative in the United States for the Poldi Steel Works of Vienna, Austria selling Poldi “Anticorro” Steel. Griffin & Howe offered Poldi Anticorro barrels as an option and most will be found on the higher grade and engraved G&H’s.

In these early years Fred Adolph was in a position to become one of the leading custom gunmakers in America. He went so far as to have an architect design the “Fred Adolph Factory”. His talent in advertising was every bit equal to his gunmaking. There was not a sportsman in America who did not know of Adolph. He also wrote articles in The Sporting Goods Dealer, Arms & The Man, The Outers Book, Outdoor Life and Rod & Gun in Canada.

In 1914 with the outbreak of hostilities in Europe the British, who had a strong navy, clamped a naval blockade on Germany and effectively cut Fred Adolph’s supply line from Germany. I believe that he must have had a lot of money tied up in orders that would never be delivered. He tried to carry on but as the war progressed his money problems only got worse. Stockmaking alone was not enough to keep him financially solvent. It was not long before magazines like Outdoor Life wrote warnings about sending Adolph money. Ads in the classified sections showed up with people trying to locate Adolph or other people who had problems with him. When the war was over there was little improvement in his financial position and it’s possible that none of the magazines would run his advertisements. The Genoa, New York, Tribune where this was published reported on July 8, 1921 that Adolph had returned on the liner “Manchuria” from Hamburg, Germany. I suspect that he was in Germany trying to recover his war losses and establish new business connections. By 1926 the bank had repossessed his house and for all practical purposes he had disappeared. In 1935 Adolph is in Brooklyn, NY and writes a letter to Sedgley trying to sell him on the idea of an over/under rifle-shotgun. He says that he had been out of the gun business for some time. On April 1, 1936 he goes to work for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan as a tool maker and retires from that job on June 30, 1952. I find him again living at the Hotel La Brea, Inglewood, California in 1957 at age eighty-two. He died in Los Angles, California August 15, 1957.
From his problems before WWI until he went to work for Ford in 1936 there are a lot of missing years. Trying to find a man who many considered to be one the best gunmakers in America during those years has been very frustrating. Keep in mind that I am still researching his past and more information may surface. I would like to tell you where I think he was for several of those years. I believe that he lived in the greater New York City area, got up every morning and took the subway to 234 East 39 Street, sat at his workbench and stocked rifles for Griffin & Howe. Please compare the pictured “Griffin & Howe” rifle to the Adolph Kurz-Mauser or Adolph-Springfield ad. I have seen several early G&H’s before they standardized their style and discontinued the stock carving that looked like the work of Fred Adolph. At first I just thought that they where copying his style, now I’m not sure. One rifle G&H No. 139 is marked with both G&H and Adolph’s name. It’s quite possible that this one was sent to him for stocking because it was an early 1923 gun. The others just have the G&H name, so the possibilities are intriguing.

Identifying an Adolph:
His first business address was at 10 Ariel Park in Rochester, New York. There are at least two known guns marked “Fred Adolph Rochester, New York”. Sometime between February 1911 and June 1911 he moved to Genoa, New York.

Once you have examined a few of the carved Adolph rifles they are not hard to identify. However the plain ones without stock carving and without provenance can be very difficult to attribute to Adolph. Notice how Adolph used his coat-of-arms as the initial shield on the Cook rifle. I wish he had done all his rifles this way; it would have made my job much easier. Few 1903 Springfield sporters made by Fred Adolph are signed. Some of the Mausers such as the pictured Kurtz sporter are marked on the barrel “Adolph Mauser Cal. 25”. Although marked 25 caliber the rifle is chambered for the 6.5x54mm Mauser - not to be confused with the longer 6.5x54mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer. I have seen other Mausers made by him that are stamped on the receiver with individual stamps “Fred Adolph Genoa N.Y.” When I saw the first one marked this way I was sure that the marking was bogus. Now having seen three all the same I am convinced that these markings are correct.


From sometime in the late 1920’s until his death I can find no evidence that Adolph, who was such a talented gunmaker, ever picked up another inletting chisel. He wrote and published poetry & music and painted, but turned his back on the thing that had cost him his reputation. I like the rifles that Fred Adolph made. The workmanship is first class; the fit and finish are beyond reproach. Today the carved stocks of Adolph’s may seem a little out of place compared to the modern custom rifle. With so many unanswered questions his work makes one wonder what could have been if he had continued gunsmithing. They are, however, a wonderful portal to the very beginning of the American custom sporting rifles as we know them today.<<


https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=72941

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

You take this plus his over the top advertising and claims that with his talented hands, that from the Earth he extracted the raw components, which he molded and fashioned step by step to form his wares,which were bar none. He didn't do anything but but source the Best of the Best mechanics, possibly do a bit of chicken scratching on wood, and then peddle it as his own......



Serbus,

Raimey
rse

So, if strong-arm tactics Petrov is correct:

>>Adolph arrived in the US in 1908 with his English-speaking wife Minnie and became a naturalized citizen in 1919. It has been reported that Adolph worked for several different gunmakers in New York State. The only employment I was able to confirm was that he worked for a short time circa 1909-10 at Baker Gun & Forging Company Batavia, NY, makers of the “Baker & Batavia Guns”. He did work during 1910 when living in Rochester for Bausch & Lomb, the optical firm.<<

You are going to tell me that a Katt that worked @ Baker Gun & Forging Company as well as Bausch & Lomb is going to make a upper rung Sporting Weapon from raw components and then add adornment. Not going to happen; Con-Man.....

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

I will concur that the above could be considered advertising and a typical business modell(albeit a fan I am not) for the time as Ford suggests, but as always, I wish to toss credit where credits is due: Zella-Mehlis Mechanics like Adalbert Wolf, facilities like the Schilling Forge, etc.


Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Raimey, I think that virtually no one or no company made the entire gun, lock, stock, and barrels. Much like autos and other products, the final guns were a combination of work produced by others and combined into a finished product. Daly seemed to do no work at all on their guns, but Lindner and later others sourced Daly guns and parts from all parts of Europe. Yes, Adolph's ads were flamboyant, maybe more so than most, but all ads try to put the best light on the products that are being sold. I don't think you do service to the fine engravers who decorated guns by Adolph when you use the term "chicken scratching". Why that term ? I do appreciate your posting Mike Petrov's research and thoughts and they generally agree with what I have found over the years. I wonder that "con man" might be a bit rough on the fellow. I know lots of people who have gone broke for one reason or another, but they were not "con men". They were people whose business failed for a variety of reasons. I wonder if it were not for the War and the apparent loss of his investment overseas , that possibly we might have been able to enjoy more Adolph style guns.

I agree that in a gunmaking centre that the final product of a finished weapon is a village effort, cottage industry. Too, I am harsh on Adolph but he is the one that set the bar high, and he himself could not deliver. Don't promise to over deliver if you cannot even deliver. Stay out of the kitchen if it is too hot...... Daly did state that they had a factory in Suhl. I too think he was delusional purporting that what he proffered was produced solely by his hand. He could have said he had a shop in Germany? And with that the question begs, where is Adolph's master mechanic sheepskin? Where did he go on his walkabout, if he even went. I think he was just a façade, master mechanic & legend in his own mind.

He seems to have sourced master mechanics and look @ the adornment on the forend of the subject longarm & tell me how you define it. Compare it to the stock, which I say was made in Zella - Mehlis. Tell me that isn't >>Chicken Scratching<<.

I do fully plan to find his German Subcontractors and if data points that his wares were fully completed in the U.S. of A., I will be the 1st to revise my assessment.

I think he oversold his wares, overloaded his boat, which sank due to his inability to finished weapons in the cellar of his house. The preponderance of evidence sure seems to tilt the scales in that direction. But as always, everyone is entitled to the opinion, and fantasy as it is.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

It is interesting if you read Mr Adolph own words in the germanhuntingguns archives, he was especially hard on those great gunmakers he so graciously used and took all the credit for their work. Others like SD&G pointed out in their advertising that it was made by others elsewhere. So I can completely understand Raimeys disdain for said creep. I do still judge the guns on individual merit not the name on the thing, and these can be good examples to do just that. Hope knowing he was a creep keeps pricing reasonable.

Most people can't handle the Truth. Almost all can't stomach it. All want to live in a fantasy world & purport and tout their virtues, as well as their abilities, whilst they do not practice what they preach. Now this is not a >>people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones<< scenario. Adolph lived in a >>Glass House<< that he built with his own hands & he threw the 1st stone.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Ramey, so you are saying that Adolph was just a con man and that the unfortunate war [out of his hands] was not a contributing culprit. Could the con men have been those, mostly in Europe , that did not produce the products for him that he paid and contracted for ? Do you consider American makers Donn, Abbey, Jakob, Kuhn, Krider, Tonks, Patrick Mullin, John Mullin, and Thomas [Chicago] to be dishonest because they used European guns to finish up ? Do you consider Eastman, Whalen, Roosevelt, Crossman, Askins, H. Ford, Andrews, Smith [L C Family] to be fools when extolling the Adolph products built for them ? Do you consider Kornbrath, who is in the top echelon of American engravers as a purveyor of “chicken scratching”? I am puzzled by the attitude . Do you find fault with the Petrov history of Adolph ? Do you find fault with the Adolph products delivered ?

Few have addressed Mr. Tim Hanrahan's question about the worth of this superb 20 gauge long-barreled single trigger side x side shotgun in nearly original condition with its original case (that is worth alone US$1,500.00) made in Europe during the time when metal working and wood working perfection was the standard.

First I want to say to Mr. Hanrahan that the today in America and Great Britain is one of the worst times to sell a gun--it is a buyers time; and that the ultimate value of your gun could be several times greater if when and where you sell it that you sell it matters a great deal. And more specific to the details of the decoration of your gun and its quality workmanship areas of the world to sell it that would warrant much attention and amount offered that come to my mind are of course Germany and Austria; Cape Town, South Africa (because of the wealthy Germans who have moved there) and Saudi Arabia and adjoining countries. Saudi Arabia and adjoining countries because of the "desert fox" engraving motif on the left side of the action).

Fortunately this gun only a few screws turned out of its original alignment from the makers and only one place on the knuckle end of the fore-end wood that was not done by the original stockmaker and further except for the noted carving on the fore-end wood was entirely made in Europe.

Several things about this gun need to be known further to enhance its value and promotion for sale and those are the balance and weight of the gun, the barrel bore condition, its current chamber length in regards to its original proof marks, the overall condition of the barrels along their full length and so forth; and does the single trigger mechanism work properly. Many on this website do not like a side x side shotgun with a single trigger, but a shotgun with a pistol grip stock and a singe trigger that function perfectly is a joy to behold and shoot.

I am not certain that an appraisal by an American of the value of this gun is prudent for you, but instead contacting someone like Wolfgang von Brauchitsch in Germany who sometimes comments in posts on this website (Raimey can give you his email address). A poster has suggested that you contact the German gun collectors and doing that will be a wise thing for you to do.

In the current market of America (and as noted by another poster) this gun will bring between US$5,000-$10,000 but in my opinion will bring 2 times or more that if you choose the proper place to sell it. Keep in mind (and this deserves repeating) that you have a long-barreled 20 gauge side x side shotgun with a single trigger and "best quality" workmanship made during the finest era of Germanic gunmaking that has ever been---and where else have you ever seen another.

KIndest Regards;
Stephen Howell