doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What made this Fox Sterlingworth so 'valuable'

Don't understand what made this Sterlingworth go for what it did considering all the blueing loss on the barrels. Plus, it looks like the receiver may have been blued a long time ago.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=313996582

The link is to a Fox SPE which is a skeet gun, scarce if not rare and highly sought after. It came from the factory with a blued frame. The ad mislabels the gun as a Fox Sterlingworth.

Best,


Mike

OK. I mislabeled the gun in my post; corrected now. I thought it was one of the flat sided SWs. My book says the SP is less valuable than a regular SW, but we know books are sometimes wrong.

I went to my online Bluebook of gun values and I couldn't find the SPE listed at all. I suppose that the E in SPE means ejector which typically adds value. I can't put my hands on my MacIntosh book right now. What are you looking at?

Thanks!

Mine is the Standard Catalogue of Firearms and it says ejectors add only 15%, but look at this pristine SPE....and the price;

http://www.gunsinternational.com/REDUCED...un_id=100272422

That is not the skeet gun version. Savage introduced the SP-/SPE-Grade in mid-1932 --



When first introduced, the SP-/SPE-Grade was very plain --



In 1934 Savage showed the Fox-Special Skeet Grade in the illustrated Wholesale Price List --



Then in 1935, they introduced the SP-/SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Gun, a much nicer stocked and finished gun --









About this same time the regular SP-/SPE-Grades began appearing with the bit of border engraving and stippling as the gun in question.

In United States people collect guns like I used to collect stamps and coins. If rare and in original condition with respectable maker name is considered desirable and therefore expensive .

The gun in question is hardly rare, maybe scarce, and far from original condition. I don't see anything "collectible" about it, but obviously more than one someone saw something in it.

I was referring to the one immediately above my post. The one in original post looks like heavily worn item worth about $450+/-50.

I agree with Researcher---as much as I love my Fox guns that price seems over the top----the seller should be very happy!