doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Savage 99 suspense

I still sit here waiting on the UPS truck. The suspense is killing me. Full coverage engraving, large dedication oval, multi panel checkering. I believe it�s a Crescent Grade plus some checkering. Why is there not a large format- high quality color photograph book of the Savage 99? I�d put the high grades side by side to any Winchester or double gun out there. The workmanship is incredible... and still I wait.

That is a beauty! Any idea of the year it was made? .300 Savage?

A lot of graded 99s that I have seen have more relief carving done in the wood, and a lot strike me as gaudy, personally. This one is fantastic and is done just right. Again, in my opinion.

Lovely rifle. I always fancied a 99, but have never even seen one let alone handled one.

The engraving on Savage 1899/99 rifles is some of the finest and most delicate looking of all the old American lever guns! That's a gorgeous example of a very high end Savage!
I have a close friend whose collected Savage 1895/1899/99 for decades and has some engraved Savages in his collection. He told me nobody seems to know who Savage used for their engravers over the years they offered it? I talked with Bob Evens about the history of Savage engraving also, and he didn't know who they used either.
This is a picture I took of my friend's display at our recent collector show:

Wow! Thanks for posting this. I'd never seen a hi-grade 99...Geo

The primary Savage in house engraver from about 1899 to approx 1917 or so was Enoch Tue.
Some sources firmly plant his engraving services with Savage till 1929.
I believe he died in 1927 though.

Tue was born in England and learned his trade at EJ Churhills before coming to the USA.

A check with the Savage collectors for the straight scoop on Enoch's term w/ Savage will most likely straighten out the years he worked there.

There were several members of the Tue family also listed as 'engraver' in census reports. One, 'Harry' was Enoch's son (most likely, maybe a nephew) and sometimes assisted Enoch on some of the Savage projects.
Enoch freelansed engraved outside the factory as well.

Wm Gough engraved for Savage and did quite a number of the 'K' series Model 99 Savage rifles. These came to be after Savage took control of the AH Fox company.
Gough of course engraved for a number of companys and clients as well.

William King was Savage Arms wood carver and high grade checkering guy. Those early high grade Model 1899 and perhaps even the Model 1895 rifles are his work with the fancy carving and checkering patterns to go along with the engraving.

Enoch Tue is also given credit for many of the high grade Savage pistols and the deluxe models of the others in the Savage line.

Personally I think that though someone like Mr Tue or another top engraver at a company may be their 'Master',,too often collectors tend to tag every piece done during their tenure there as a personal piece of their work.
There're only so many hours in a day,,and no GraverMax back then.

Thanks for that information Kutter! I've heard of Enoch Tue, but didn't know he was doing Savage engraving. Can we assume the engraving for Savage was done at Tue's own shop, since he was doing engraving for others at that same period?

Congratulations on that 99! It looks far nicer in your photos than the pics that I saw in it's listing. Really sharp. That extra flourish of checkering behind the main panel of the grip reminds me of a 2nd gen Fox D-grade pattern. I've got to find the copy of Tue's obituary that I located years ago. There was no son listed in the obit.
Tom