"You guys ever notice than any gun Frank Hollenbeck had a hand in always has kinda "swoopy" or "wingy" checkering patterns?
His designs always have some swoop to the checkering".
Old Frank was long gone from the company by the time this Three Barrel Gun Company version of his gun was produced, so I doubt he had much if anything to do with the checkering designs on this gun; but I believe, barring special order, the style seen here was reserved only for the model featuring the deer and bear scene engravings (maybe the highest standard grade offering by TBGC at the time?). Many of the early higher grade Hollenbeck Gun Company marked models lack cheek panel checkering; but those that do feature an entirely different style, and some will also feature tear-drops. Early Hollenbeck Gun Co. grip panel checkering is also less likely to have the exaggerated wing panel checking extending into the comb as seen on this TBGC gun. On the Hollenbeck by Syracuse Arms Company models none of the early Hollenbeck marked high grades I've seen had wing panels; those extra flourishes are seen only on the later production C and D Grade Syracuse marked guns made long after Mr. Hollenbeck was gone from that company also. Frank Hollenbeck also designed the Baltimore Arms Company gun, and I can't think of any maker who more elaborately embellished their gun with checkering than Baltimore did with their Grade D gun; but I understand that Mr. Hollenbeck's affiliation with the Baltimore Gun Company had already ended before the first Baltimore gun was ever produced. For whatever my opinion is worth (worthless mostly), I believe the owners of the Three Barrel Gun Company adopted this exaggerated checkering pattern in an attempt to give their version of Hollenbeck's gun a slightly different/new look; and I can't think of a simpler manner in which to do so than utilizing a different checkering design. Unfortunately for them, and for us; the Hollenbeck gun and Frank's idea never took hold with the shooting public; regardless of what the gun was named. Still, these guns, in all Hollenbeck's iterations, remain most interesting guns to study and collect; and with which to bag game.
