Page 279 - 4096-FLIPBOOK3

LOT 3464
Exceptional Rudolph Kornbrath Master Engraved and Gold Inlaid Griffin &
Howe Model 1903 Bolt Action Rifle Inscribed to Cliff Sparks, with Scope -
Serial no. 834, 30-06 Springfield cal., 24 inch round bbl., blue finish, walnut stock.
Griffin & Howe is America’s oldest and most storied custom rifle builder with a
history reaching back over 100 years to when New York carpenter Seymour Griffin
began building fine stocks for surplus military rifles. This rifle was completed in the
late 1920s and was built with a blued barrel featuring a banded ramped hooded
blade front sight surrounded by scrollwork, engraved barrel band with front sling
eye, a 1 1/2 inch wedge of scroll engraving at the breech, caliber marking at the left
of the chamber, and “No. 834 GRIFFIN & HOWE, INC. NEW YORK” signed on the top.
The barrel is fitted to the blued Model 1903 action which features a matted front
bridge, engraved Lyman rear peep sight, engraved bolt handle with checkered
knob, and a blued and engraved G&H scope mount holding a Lyman Alaskan
scope. The blued bottom metal features more scroll engraving surrounding “CLIFF
SPARKS” inlaid in gold on the floorplate.
The Cliff Sparks in question was likely the one of Jackson, Michigan, who played
football for the University of Michigan, served in the First World War, and was an
avid shooter with fine skeet scores posted in local papers of the period, and very
well could have used this rifle in the woods of Michigan hunting white-tail. Though
the engraving is unsigned, given the time of completion in tandem with the
exceptional quality of the work, it was undoubtedly executed by Master Engraver
Rudolph Kornbrath, who became G&H’s in-house engraver starting in 1927. The rifle
is fitted in a gorgeous highly figured and multi-point checkered pistol grip stock
with horn forend tip, engraved rear sling eye, engraved and casehardened trapdoor
grip cap, raised cheekpiece, blank inscription oval, and a checkered blued steel
trapdoor buttplate.
CONDITION: Excellent, retaining 95% plus blue finish with minor handling evidence,
some very minor freckles of spotting, and some dried grease. The wood is very
fine with some scratches, some pressure marks, and crisp checkering. Mechanically
excellent. The scope optics are clear.
Estimate: 6,500 - 9,500
277