Early Engraved 44 Magnum
- Thread starter Doc44
- Start date
H P Bushrod
Absent Comrade
This 44 Magnum was Class B engraved by Virginia Le Blanc (VL inscribed on the grip frame) and shipped in June 1956. It is the earliest factory engraved 44 Magnum reported to date. The stocks are by Alvin White and are made of birds eye maple. Click on the photos for a better look.
Bill
Doc, Once again, you've outdone yourself with that historic piece! It's beautiful...The grips are what REALLY blew me away! I love the birds eye maple. Thanks for sharing the pics!
chisels
Member
I knew the grips were White. The engraving I thought was Ziggy but VL tells the story. Love these grips.
That's interesting because I see nothing in common between LeBlanc and Rentzschke except they both engraved S&Ws. Their styles are very different in all examples that I have seen. Leblanc's style is reminiscent of Jarvis because Jarvis mentored her...
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With 25+ years at the factory engraving S&W's, Chisels is an expert on engraved S&Ws and I always appreciate his perspective. Based on the guns that I have seen, I have to agree with Jim on this one - which means that most likely, I haven't seen enough examples (I would always love to see more).
I have three Rentzschke engraved guns, all of which have very tight and fine scrolling, like this:
While all of the LeBlanc guns that I have seen looked like Jim's beautiful Combat Magnum:
Reference: http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ha...ombat-magnum-pre-19-its-factory-engraved.html
And Bill's 44 Mag:
Reference (see post 22): http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-hand-ejectors-1896-1961/107018-rare-trick-treat-44-magnum.html
Either way, I love the engraving of all three artists - Jarvis, LeBlanc and Rentzschke.
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