SAVAGE 99-E PRE-RIVAL GRADE FACTORY ENGRAVED LEVER ACTION RIFLE

SAVAGE 99-E PRE-RIVAL GRADE FACTORY ENGRAVED LEVER ACTION RIFLE

25-4951 | Cal. 303 Savage | S#. 35.216 | Bbl. 26″ tapered octagon

Western brass bead front, folding leaf rear with a Lyman combination tang sight. Action features include: hand jeweled bolt, brass rotary mag., left side shell counter, bolt mounted bar type cocking indicator, and bent tab safety. Original finish was blue with case colored lever. The action has unsigned full coverage E Grade factory engraving likely done by British trained factory engraver Enoch Tue. Mountain scene on left side of the receiver depicts 4 mule deer. Right side scene shows a snarling grizzly. Scenes are surrounded by arabesque scroll engraving with punch dot backgrounds that extend to lower receiver and front ring areas. Engraving scenes are highlighted by straight line borders with faceted borders at front and rear receiver areas. Schnabel tipped forearm and S curve pistol grip stock of fancy black walnut with case colored crescent steel buttplate. Stock and forearm have C grade borderless hand segmented fleur-de-lis hand checkering. C Grade checkering was used on the later Crescent Grade rifle that was among the grades introduced in 1905. This rifle, produced in 1904, has E Grade engraving as was used on the later Rival Grade that was also introduced in 1905. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: letter from John T. Callahan stating: “This past week, I had the opportunity to search the factory serial records for information specific to your rifle, bearing S/N 35.216. The record books tell us that this rifle was original manufactured in caliber .303 Savage with a full octagon barrel, option pistol grip stock and fancy American Walnut. It was accepted from the factory to the warehouse on June 10, 1904. It was shipped on April 3, 1907 and the original consignee is listed to be the firm of Salt Lake Hardware of Salt Lake City, Utah.”, the letter further states: “From your information and the record, the basis for this rifle is a Model 1899-B. They were normally furnished with a 26” octagon barrel in calibers .303 Savage, .30-30 Win., .25-35, .32-40 and /38-55. There are no confirming entries or work orders for factory engraving in the ledger. There is however, a mostly unreadable two line entry penciled in of which line one is not readable. Line two says “12 light traveler” and is not of any type of entry I have run across before. From your photos that accompanied your letter, I will state that the engraving is a “Rival” grade factory pattern. This coupled with the entries that are present for fancy wood and the amount of time that it was at Savage before it was sold lead me to believe that the rifle was used as a sample or display gun”. 
STATUS: CURIO