How early in the history of bolt action rifles was fleur-de-lis checkering begun? There is a small picture in MP's book captioned Early G&H .30-06 which looks to have a fleur-de-lis pattern. Are there samples pre-Griffin & Howe?

Maybe this was a normal progression from Parker shotguns and high grade Winchester and Marlin rifles? I'm curious about the development of this style of decoration.


- stu