In a fit of anal retention while I was watching "Antiques Road Show", I went through all 18 Remington Arms Co. catalogues I have from the October 1894 introduction of the Remington Hammerless Gun through 1909. They were remarkably consistant. In the beginning, the A-quality guns had "two-stripe Damascus", the B-quality "fine three-stripe Damascus", the C-quality "finer Damascus", the D-quality "very fine Damascus" and the E-quality "finest Damascus." There were only three changes throughout the period. In the 1903-04 Remington Arms Co. catalogue the C-quality changed to "fine Damascus" and the D-quality to "extra fine Damascus." In the first 1906 catalogue the B-quality became just "three-stripe Damascus."
But, we see Remington Hammerless Doubles with a great variety of barrels. In his book, Semmer shows a salesman's display sample of 15 different Damascus patterns. It appears that as one moved up in quality you got a choice of more different patterns. Instead of "fine three-stripe Damascus" my 1895-vintage BE-Grade has Chain J Damascus barrels?!? Did Arthur DuBray and S.A. Tucker have similar salesman's Damascus pattern samples customers could chose from?
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07-13-2013, 09:41 PM
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