A note on Sanderson Grips
What exactly makes vintage wood target stocks collectible and…sometimes expensive? After all, they are just grips, and they’re not OEM parts that you search out to make a particular out-of-production collector handgun complete. Sile and various other Italian outfits have been carpet bombing the acccessories market with adequate wood target stocks for some decades now. Those are real cheap.
Vintage grip collectibility is the result of rarity and uniqueness - like most antiques. Roper grips are first in that regard, with Sanderson’s second, and maybe Kearsarge and Griffin & Howe behind. These stocks were handworked by craftsman before the wide use of CNC machines. Surviving sets exist today in very limited numbers, and they seldom hit the market. Their rarity - and the ability to properly assign a name and a story to them - makes them very desirable
I’ve been meaning to write up a piece about Sanderson grips and post it here. I’m working on it, and will post it…when it’s done. But I have been seeing some around lately on the auction sites. Lew Sanderson’s story as gripmaker is filtering through the collector community a bit more it seems, and these grips are getting more desirable. They are in fact excellent grips
I do note this auction, for a set of Sanderson N frames: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270312715173&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017
It appears there’s less known about Sanderson than Roper. One of the big questions I’ve had is: how long a period were Sanderson stocks made? I’ve seen photo copies of ads from the American Rifleman, suggesting Lew Sanderson started adverstising there in the late 40’s. It’s been less clear when the business ceased. This auction states Don Sanderson quit making grips in 1973. Looks like reasonably concrete information, and jibes with what I’ve read - a production run of about 1949 to 1973, strating with Lew, and continued for some time by his sons.