Lovely gun! What's that hanging down from the left side of the action in picture 7? Part of the scope mount?
Yes its the screw on the noske mount
That is some fine inletting, and the engraving is special too. Whose work is this?
Thanks for showing it 375. There may(?) be a little disconnect between the floorplate and the trigger guard engraving, but that floorplate looks to have some very nice engraving. Thanks also for showing the inletting, and it looks to be a nicely proportioned and executed stock. Congrats.
This might help lead somewhere...seems the right kind of man, had a patent on a "rolling military kitchen" among other things.
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=frank+g.+baldwin+sechler
I considered that guy, as well as this frank
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40482803/rocky_mount_telegram/ who's family, ran a chain of department stores.
Still nothing concrete and its a pretty common name I am finding.
What is that on the floorplate, a Squabbit?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_squirrelAre there European proof marks on the rifle?
no marks or proofs would have been simple to send just the trigger guard to Europe for engraving.
The animal inlay looks more whimsical to me than a game animal that might be hunted with an ‘06 length action. More so with the additional pictures, a different hand seems to have added the dates, initials and the trigger guard engraving. The gold line work on the trigger guard does not seem to be executed with the same touch as the animal inlay.
The floor plate has a bit of German influenced engraving feel to me. It may have been available for the build and not commissioned for the build. My suspicion would be that whoever engraved the floor plate, would probably have used a similar style to do the initials and date. I’d guess, to some extent or another, the rifle was done, and then was reworked for giving as a gift. Just guessing for fun is all.
I'm sure Paul Jaeger is not the only gunsmithing company, here or in Europe, who sold pre-engraved floorplates.
Floorplates/bottom metal would be a very easy item ship over and back. Aswell the rest of the gun could be worked on while waiting. Likely why many guns only have engraving on the bottom metal.
From reading about English engravers working for the British gunmakers, during their hay days, and the very short time required for the engraving part of the gun making process, and if this floor plate was sent to Europe to be engraved it is very possible that the actual time while the plate was in transit to and back, exceeds the time the floor plate was on the engravers bench.
Bill,
I also thought James Howe because of the stippled spot on the barrel with 2 dots at the point and the little panels on the top of the wrist but I didn't see what I thought were any other Howe signs.
Dan
The barrel is same diameter as the receiver which is a feature fairly Howe adjacent ( being seen in early Griffin Howe and on Hoffman guns) But other then those details I don't have anything concrete.
Any markings on the bottom of the barrel?
I’m convinced, with about 99% certainty, that I’ve solved the mystery of Frank Baldwin. In looking at the monogrammed initials on the gun, the middle initial just didn’t look like a “G” to me so I began searching the internet for a Frank Baldwin with the middle initial “C”. I found an obituary for Frank Conger Baldwin, a fairly prominent architect who was born in Galesburg, Illinois June 13, 1869. He was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, married Lilian E. Edson in Boston on June 24, 1896, and practiced architecture in Detroit (the firm of Stratton & Baldwin) and later Washington, D.C. He passed away in November, 1945 at age 76. The obit listed one of his hobbies as hunting. So armed with that name, I further found that Frank Conger Baldwin was friends with Harry Snyder, backer of Hoffman Arms Company, and made a hunting trip with Snyder and Edwin H. Lupton to the Athabaskan Country of Alberta, Canada in September of 1923 on the recommendation of Townsend Whelen, after Whelen’s hunt in the fall of 1922. Baldwin wrote a two part story about the trip published in Outdoor Life magazine June and July 1924 and titled “With Pack Train and Tepee in the Rockies of Alberta”. Interestingly, a .35 Whelen built by Hoffman Arms Company, stocked by John Dubiel, and engraved by Rudolf Kornbrath “Dr. A Knutson/Reynolds Ill” was previously discussed in this forum and that man, Dr. Anton Knutson, arrived in the same area of Alberta to hunt, infringing on the area occupied by Baldwin, Snyder, and Lupton. Also, the guide/outfitter was Stanley Clark, the man to whom Townsend Whelen gave his Wundhammer rifle upon conclusion of the previous year’s hunt.
I think given these connections, there’s little doubt that Frank Conger Baldwin owned these two rifles.
Very interesting, What markings did the 30-06 rifle have on it? I thought that one also had name/monogram
I’m not at home, still in Kenya, and won’t return to the U.S. until early December. I haven’t even had the guns in my hands yet. Just have plenty of free time while I’m here to do the research. Do you remember how you came up with the complete name Frank Baldwin in the first place? Maybe the full name is on the .30-06?
yes its on the floorplate, could be C ?
https://imgur.com/MOL4glN
Arrived home from Africa Wednesday night and picked up the rifles today. IMMEDIATELY upon getting the .7X57 in my hands, I knew the stocker without even looking it over—- John Dubiel! No question about it, I can recognize a Dubiel with my eyes closed. No one did a trim little stock like he did and he’s my favorite. And the .30-06 is a Seymour Griffin. Both are neat guns but I’m particularly excited to have a Dubiel in .7X57.
I have a dubiel stocked Hoffman shotgun really great job of wood work
