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Joined: Feb 2002
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Here are a few photos for the L C Smith collectors which may help identify the engraving of Charles H Jerred Sr.. I'm not sure af anything about Jerred except that he dabbled with or designed and installed single triggers for Hunter Arms. I have about 5 different single triggers on Fulton trigger plates from Jerred, none of which seem to match the patent record.
Anyway Jerred had his own scroll touchmark but I've yet to see it on a Smith. It's certainly not on my Smiths. I've been told that Jerred succeeded Krouse but I don't know what year that would have been.
Jerred's cypher is on his stationery. People who wouldn't know Jerred's name from a box of doughnuts told me that alot of his stuff wound up in a barn in Sunset Bay, Irving NY.
I'm posting these photos in hopes that someone will be able to recognize his engraving work on later manufactured Smiths or Fultons.




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Robert, Charles Jerred worked under Al Kraus and became a good friend of his. I believe he was hired in 1945, and only worked on Ideal Grades and was not a single trigger fitter.
On his own time, he did engravings for local people for some money or on the barter system. After the gun works closed, he also did some free lance engraving on pistols, but I don't believe he did any work on L.C. Smiths then because of the work to anneal and re-case harden.

One of the posters here did an article in the DGJ on Charles Jerred and owned one of his Field Grades turned into a Deluxe +. I'm sure he will read this and post more and correct anything I might have mis-stated.


David


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Jerred, working freelanse, engraved about 250 Ruger 22 Single Six revolvers for the company in the mid/late 50's. There's also some that were engraved in Spain for Ruger earlier than his work.
Jerred's show up both in Flat Gate and Round Gate. AFAIK he signed all of his. The pattern varies slightly as you might expect over the haul.

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Robert
Ken Sweet, Jerred's best friend and who is also stone carver by trade, told me that Jerred never signed a Smith gun that he engraved. Ken further told me that the idea of Jerred signing his work had never been considered until Jerred received a contract to engrave a limited run of Ruger pistols; and that is was at that point that he and Jerred worked together to develop Jerred's engraver's mark, which is indeed the mark depicted on the stationery above. Ken stated that Jerred wanted his mark to be as inconspicuous as possible, therefore it is hidden within his scroll work; so that, if someone doesn't know exactly what to search for, his mark is simply part of the scrolls within the engraving pattern. When Jerred died, Ken Sweet carved Jerred's head store; and an examination of that headstone will show oak leaf border work (one of Jerred's favorite objects to cut), and includes Jerred's engraver mark (which I was told is only found on the Ruger pistols he engraved).
As to signed engraving on Smith guns; the only Smith guns I've ever seen signed were signed "Glahn S.C.", which I understand is not the mark of an individual engraver. And although I've heard of a couple of Smith guns signed by Kraus (supposedly under the top lever), we have no pics; and I won't have any faith in such rumors until I've seen actual proof. As to high grade Smith guns being signed by the Kraus, my research doesn't lead me to believe such guns exist based on the manner in which Kraus managed the engraving department. As head of the department, his first priority was to make sure each man, all paid by the hour, received enough hours each week to make a living; so whenever an engraving project was received, each engraver would be assigned an element of the project based on his skill levels (and old time sheets exist to back that up). For instance, the apprentices under his tutelage would be assigned the duty of the heavy chiseling and reshaping of breech balls, cutting raised beads, etc; as well as the required tedious polishing of all those chiseled surfaces to make them smooth (more cost effective at an apprentice rate); others would be assigned the task of cutting borders and intricate scroll work, while Kraus, the master engraver, would perform intricate game scenes and gold inlay work. And finally, Jerred was never the head of the Smith gun engraving department; he was certainly being groomed for that role, but circumstances never allowed that to take place. Jerred's wife had relatives living in Augusta, GA; and he and his bride were visiting those relatives in January, 1949 when the floor above the canal collapsed and dumped all the heavy milling equipment in the drink. A month later, Marlin made the decision to finish as many guns as possible from parts on hand; then to permanently close the gunworks and relegate the Smith gun to its place in history. This was a tough blow for Jerred, for he had been serving his 5-year apprenticeship under Kraus; and most interestingly, had just achieved the rank of master engraver the same month the gunworks floor collapsed. As there was no demand by companies for full-time engravers in 1949-50; Jerred struggled to make a living operating a gas station and doing sub-contract engraving work nights. It was during those years that he earned his GED; and went from that point onto college, a masters degree in astronomy, and a full-time professorship. Kraus trained Jerred on his gold inlay techniques, and the inlay above certainly appears to be Jerred's work based on some of the big game floor plate inlays I've seen on other rifles he engraved. Jerred had a great sense of humor and I've seen two humorous gold inlayed floor plates he did, both based on hornets. One where mad bees were after an unlucky fisherman; and in the other, chasing a bear. In another Jerred story, after being hounded by a local to engrave a pistol; Jerred finally agreed. When he asked the gent how he wanted it engraved, he was told to do something that would personally thought would be in keeping with this gent's personality. Since Jerred knew this guy was notorious as a trout poacher, he engraved the gun with fish; the owner was not happy with the finished piece, but never hounded Jerred to engrave anything else either. Finally, of all the characters I've researched; Jerred's story was absolutely the most inspiring. If anyone is interested in knowing a bit more, I encourage you to read the two-part series published in the DGJ a few years ago.

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topgun, thanks for the really fine answer.

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topgun,

I want to personally thank you for the research you did on Jerred for your DGJ articles. Those articles your post here, and the book "Compliments of Col. Ruger" pretty much constitute all I know about Jarred.

Cheers,
Roger


C. Roger Bleile
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Mike,

My apologies if we are hijacking the Jarred thread.

I have to diasgree with Drew about the 90 being Japanese engraved. All of the engraving I've seen done by Japanese trained engravers has a very distinctive scroll. The Japanese are trained to cut toward themselves using short chisels without a handle. Their scroll looks Germanic at first blush but is cut very differently. Most of their post war work for GI's does have raised silver inlays but almost all of their long guns have their stocks carved with game scenes.

The scrollwork on the pictured 90 looks very amateurish. It is full of dog legs and elbows, especially the scroll on the forend iron. It is my opinion that it was engraved by the owner as a project piece. No master engraver at a gun factory would allow one of their engravers to put out work with such ill formed scrollwork. The stock looks pretty good but stocks are not my specialty.

Cheers,
Roger


C. Roger Bleile
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Thanks
Mike


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Daryl,
Thanks, coming from someone of your background in collecting, I consider that a high compliment.

Roger,
You are most welcome, and to be honest I sort of stumbled into the Jerred story when I came across his unfinished personal DeLuxe gun; but was the recipient of much invaluable assistance along the way, most notably from Ken Sweet. Ken had continued his friendship with Mrs. Jerred and Charles Jr. after Mr. Jerred died; and had I not developed a trust relationship with Ken Sweet, my research would have gotten nowhere. After Mr. Jerred's death, the Jerred family was apparently besieged by folks claiming friendship; and who wanted a "keepsake" as a remembrance, so the family gave away many of Mr. Jerred's personal belongings before realizing that these "friends" were selling these items to collectors; the family felt betrayed. At that point a "fence" was in effect erected around the family; and had it not been for Ken, I would never have gotten past the gate. With Ken's introduction, I was able to correspond with Charles Jerred Jr. via email for about 3 months; and although I accumulated a thick file of email correspondence during that period, I've never met Mr. Jerred nor spoken with him a single time. But we did slowly establish a trust thru the web so that he shared many touching personal stories about his Dad; and I believe his sharing those memories was cathartic to some unknown degree. I shared the highlights of those memories and facts about his Dad in the DGJ; and attempted to relate the story as if it was being told by Mr. Jerred himself. I chose that format because I had been told by Ken Sweet that the family had not been pleased with some of the things previously published about Mr. Jerred, so my goal was to write as accurate a piece as possible; and one with which Mrs. Jerred would be pleased. So when Ken called me to tell me that the piece had been well received by Mrs. Jerred, I felt I had accomplished my goals.

Sheettx,
That is certainly an amazing Model 90, and like every one else; I have no idea who might have engraved that gun. I also doubt the existence of any detailed Marlin factory records; although one can usually establish the year of manufacture of a Marlin made gun using the serial number prefix. Interestingly, and although the scroll is not Jerred-like, if you will pull the old issues of the DGJ showing Jerred's unfinished Deluxe, and check the engraved dog on the left side lock plate; you will be amazed at the similarity of that dog scene (Jerred's personal work) to that on the Model 90. And although I can't locate the item in all the clutter in my office, Ken Sweet had sent me a copy of a business card used by Jerred and featuring two ducks in flight on the right side of a Browning Superposed; as I recall that duck scene is strikingly similar to the duck scene on the Model 90. Marlin did do special guns from time to time; and did utilize Jerred to some unknown degree, as I have a copy of a Marlin check stub where Mr. Jerred was paid $10 for subcontract engraving at $1.50/hour (master engraver rates have come a long way since the early 1950's haven't they!). When I "interviewed" Jerred, Jr; he told me he still had his Dad's old engraving ledger in which he had recorded all the guns/projects he had engraved after leaving Marlin (I had him check those records for any evidence that Jerred had engraved any Deluxe Grades after his Marlin employment ended). That book was recently for sale on eBay at $4500; don't know if it sold or not, but if he engraved this Model 90 after he left Marlin/the gunworks, the gun would be recorded in that ledger. I doubt, in the event the Model 90 was Jerred's work, that it would have been engraved before 1948; as Jerred had not earned his master engraver status until January, 1949. At any rate, I hope the history of that piece is discovered at some point; would be an interesting story.
And one final note regarding inlays, gold has always been expensive for the common man; and to illustrate the obvious, this story was shared by Mr. Sweet during my work on Mr. Jerred. Workers in the engraving department were always open to trading work to other workers within the factory for this, that, and the other in return for something they wanted or needed done; and they also worked on their own special projects. One of the Smith gun engravers custom engraved a "DeLuxe" grade for himself; and because he couldn't afford the necessary gold for Deluxe Grade inlay work, used copper instead so those inlays would have a little color. Apparently things like this were not uncommon.

Last edited by topgun; 08/20/12 11:31 PM.
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