The "Gold Towel Collector" is the guy who usually photographs his guns on a gold or dark yellow terrycloth towel. It is one of his many 'trademarks'. Incidentally, the nearly neutral shade of the towel offsets the guns very nicely along with allowing us to identify the collector.

Now don't any of you other collectors try to confuse us by using a gold towel backdrop in your photos. :nono:

Intriguing and beautiful! And what of the "Gold Towel",,,,,,,,,,,?

Were damascus barrels common on Model 97's? I have seen many 97's but never damascus.

Excellent question. I had a friendly dispute with a friend who covets 97's about this posting and he swears that they dont exist. So i just sent a link to this thread.

Dean-o
I will apologize in advance because I think the gold background shows off the guns perfectly.
Im gonna go buy a gold carpet remnant Dean. You know what a difficult time this writer has with his photos!!!

There are a couple questions or comments about Winchester Mod 97's with damascus barrels.

Although I put those photos under a general damascus heading, I think the Mod 97 barrel is more properly a laminated steel barrel rather than damascus.

I do not have Mod '97 production records, so I cannot comment about the rarity of '97 composite barrels, but in my experience, they are seldom seen. There was one for sale at the fall 2011 Louisville KY show. Generally poor condition, beat up stock, no bluing, no barrel colors left, rattlely and the table top dealer wanted $850 for it. I looked at it twice and he tried to convince me that it was a "good deal".

If a person wanted to find one, the spring Wannamacher Tulsa show is probably the next best opportunity.

I have a Damascus M-97. It's in pretty decent shape, mechanically, all original, un-touched. I would love to have it restored, but have no clue what the value is, or the effect a restoration would have on its value.
I also have a very high condition original M-93 riot gun (I know they didn't call em that back then) with a letter from Cody. The letter confirmed 5 were ordered, but I have no idea how many 20" guns in total were manufactured, and also, many, if not most were bought back by Winchester and destroyed.
I am a huge fan of the M-97’s, btw.

don't know about the 93's

the 97's were called trench guns I believe

This one was manufactured in 1893, evidently for a bank, or prison. Not carried much, with one minor ding in the stock. I have shot it, with 2 1/2" low pressure RST ammo.
I suspect this gun is quite rare.

The Model 1898 Marlin repeater was available with Damascus in their Grade D version. This is in my 1905 catalog. I do not know how long the option was available. My 1911 WRA Co. catalog shows the 1897 available with 3 blade Damascus for $15.00 extra, and 4 blade for $20.00 extra. These were last shown in the January 1913 catalog.