Fine Gunmaking

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Does that bring back memories of American Lit in junior or senior high? The first line is probably the most recognizable of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha.” Published in 1855, two decades before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, “Hiawatha” appeared in a time of turmoil for Native Americans and polarized emotions of new immigrants vacillating between “Lo, the poor Indian” and “The only good Indian . . . .”

This epic poem was the inspiration for the creation of one of the more ornate and elaborate custom shotguns created in America, and its creator, Fred Adolph, was one of the earliest and most influential of American custom gunmakers. This is the third in a series on notable American double guns, and the gun is from the collection of my friend Daryl Hallquist.

Excerpts from Adolph’s catalog allude to the gunmaker’s inspirations in embellishing this sidelock side-by-side with scenes from the poem, and accumulated provenance establish its creation around 1910 to 1912, securing a special place in the continuum of American custom firearms.

Adolph’s Modern Guns Catalog, circa 1914-’15, quoted the following testimonial from the October 1912 issue of Outdoor Life: “If proof of this is wanted, it is found in a shotgun made by a well-known gunsmith of this country, which is such a departure from the ordinary lines of gun decoration as to merit illustration as well as description.

“In all our gun decoration the theme is taken from field, wood, sea or marsh, but it finds its expression in the meaningless deer, dogs and ducks. With this gun the theme is taken from the woods, in fact, taken from that most beautiful ballad of the woods, ‘Hia-watha,’ through every line of which sweeps the rustle of the leaf, the murmur of the waterfall, the song of the bird, or the roar of the winter storm. The artist, for he is an artist in the broadest sense of the word, has taken typical scenes from the poem and reproduced them in gold . . .  .

“The entire scene is harmonious in concept and execution, and, as one looks at it, it brings back, irresistibly, the melody of this most beautiful of woodland stories, this song of Hiawatha. It is far better than the customary improbable dogs pointing impossible birds in incomprehensible positions. It means something and its meaning is clear; and it is safe to say that the owner will be thoroughly familiar with Longfellow’s masterpiece, soon after he receives it, if not already.

“The gun itself, a masterpiece of fine workmanship, is a most fitting reminder of the traditions of our first Americans, this epic of the Red Man.”

The unusually long 31-1/2" barrels of Antinit steel are chambered for 2-1/2" 12-gauge shells, have pre-1912 German proof marks on the barrel flats and are choked an Extra-Full .045". The nicely figured European-walnut stock with pistol grip has very shootable dimensions (14-5/8" x 1-7/16" x 2-3/8") and is graced with a serrated horn buttplate and a nicely shaped horn-wedge forend tip. The pinless sidelocks (no internal screws showing on the lockplates) are certainly rare for the era.

Adolph’s catalog entry for the “Hammerless Double Shotgun with Side Locks” accurately describes this gun: “Double hammerless gun, locked with double bolt on the lugs, square cross-bolt through the extension rib, Purdey side-clips and dollshead. Direct imported . . . barrels, showing the proofmarks of the German government. Stock very fine Circassian walnut, fancy checkering. Side locks with intercepting sears. Heavy relief engraving showing scenes from ‘Hiawatha’ after pictures by Harrison Fisher. Inlaid in gold . . . . Guns of this type, less elaborately engraved, can be built for $150.00 and up to $1,500.00.”

Harrison Fisher was the illustrator of the 1906 edition of “Hiawatha” and provided the inspiration for the gun’s engraving. An Adolph-made over/under combination gun bearing Hiawatha-themed engraving was owned by Teddy Roosevelt, but unfortunately it was destroyed in the 1990s in an African grassfire during the filming of the movie In the Blood. Surely there must be another Adolph Hiawatha-themed gun out there, as the one shown and described in the catalog has very different engraving than the gun appearing here. As Adolph was known primarily as a stockmaker, the proof marks on the barrels and action help establish that the metalwork originated in Germany and perhaps the engraving did as well.

Fred Adolph was born in Glantz, Germany, in 1876 or ’77, emigrated to the US in 1908, settled in Genoa, New York, in 1911 and became a naturalized US citizen in 1919. He was quite the self-promoter, producing 60- plus-page catalogs and prompting stories about his work in national magazines. His work was worthy—excellent in design and execution.

Adolph catalogs offered break-open and falling-block single- shots, side-by-side sidelock and boxlock double shotguns and rifles, multi-barreled combination guns and Drillings, as well as Mauser, Mannlicher and Springfield bolt-action sporters and even custom Savage 99 lever rifles. It is suspected that much of the metalwork was imported from Germany, except that of the custom Springfield and Savage rifles. Adolph was apparently successful as a gunmaker, with firearms authorities of the day such as Charles Askins Sr., Charles Newton, Teddy Roosevelt, Townsend Whelen and Roy Chapman Andrews counted among his customers.

Adolph didn’t make the Hiawatha gun entirely in the US, and the final German proof marks pretty much assure that. According to an autobiographical sketch titled “From the Scrap-Book of a Gun-Maker,” which appeared in one of Adolph’s catalogs, the gunmaker said about his apprenticeship in Germany: “ . . . the third year I learned frame and lockmaking, fitting barrels to the frame and case-hardening, and in the fourth year stock-making was added.” So Adolph was capable of all of the woodwork and finishing techniques.

It appears that World War I and Adolph’s close economic ties with Germany drove the gunmaker into bankruptcy. Classified ads appeared in national sporting magazines from people trying to locate Adolph or having problems with him, and warnings about doing business with him appeared in Outdoor Life. In 1926 Adolph’s house was repossessed, and in 1936 he took a job with the Ford Motor Co., where he worked until retiring in 1952. He never returned to gunmaking.

Adolph’s sad story of early success followed by financial ruin continues to crop up in the gun trade.

Substantial provenance is rare in the world of gun collecting, but when it is available, it often accompanies a gun when passed from owner to owner. In this case gun owner Daryl Hallquist and his friend Michael Petrov, a pre-eminent American firearms authority, accumulated thorough documentation of the Fred Adolph masterpiece. The Adolph catalog alone has direct reference to a Hiawatha gun, and the inserted flyer shows a photo of this exact gun as determined by matching the wood grain. Petrov also managed to locate and acquire Adolph’s personal papers and wrote the following letter of authenticity.

“To Whom It May Concern:

“Shortly before his death in 1957 Fred Adolph the gunmaker put together a history of his gunmaking years and sent the information to Gentleman’s Quarterly. By 1968 GQ had not published anything on Fred Adolph and had stamped the file ‘Please Return.’ As there was no one to return the file to, it stayed with them until 1975 when it was given away. I received the file in December of 2007. The picture of the Adolph shotgun with the Hiawatha engraving and the original drawing for this engraving came from the file sent by Adolph to GQ.”

The drawing that Petrov refers to is of the gold-inlaid scene on the left lockplate, and it appears to be nearly identical to the actual engraving. Petrov also supplied Hallquist with a black & white print of the gun as it appears in the brochure flyer, along with a description supplied by Adolph. He also had located copies of a booklet titled South of Auburn, Stories from Central New York from 1779-1960s, which includes information about Adolph and the Hiawatha gun in an article titled “The Greatest Gunmaker in the US, Possibly the World.” According to that article: “The Genoa Tribune offers the following story on January 19, 1912. ‘Mr. Adolph has just completed a very fine gun for A.F. Zambriski of Aurora, which is a beauty. The stock is Circassian walnut and the mountings are engraved with scenes from Hiawatha and also the coat of arms of the owner. The price is $350.’ It is not known if the descendants of Mr. Zambriski still possess the gun made in Genoa.”

The severe wear of the gold overlay on the trigger guard may have obliterated the Zambriski coat of arms. Whether this happened naturally or was done intentionally is not known, but it is the most obviously worn surface on the entire gun.

This is an extraordinary shotgun for many reasons, including the lovely applied art, the precious metal, the poetic theme, the quality manufacture, the interesting mechanism, the well-known maker and the international flavor. The owner also has put about a box of shells through the gun, just because. He took it pheasant hunting once, but unfortunately even the tight chokes couldn’t bring him within range of the wild-flushing Montana roosters. Perhaps this year I’ll get one more photograph of Adolph’s masterwork with a gaudy cockbird.

Author’s Note: I’d like to thank my friends Daryl Hallquist, who allowed me to photograph the Hiawatha gun and accompanying material, and Michael Petrov, who provided much of the biographical information about Fred Adolph from his book, Custom Gunmakers of the 20th Century, as well as several of the original documents from Adolph’s personal papers.