POTD: The A.H. Fox Sterlingworth – The Gun Fox Wouldn’t Sign

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have the working man’s version of “the finest gun in the world.” This is an A.H. Fox Sterlingworth, and the story behind it says a lot about its maker. Ansley Herman Fox was a champion trap shooter, an inventor with a patent at 24, and a man with an ego to match. He billed his Philadelphia double as “The Finest Gun in the World,” and Teddy Roosevelt, who hauled a fancy Fox on his African safari, agreed no better gun was ever made.

So when Fox’s business partner pushed him to build a stripped-down, affordable version on that same strong action, Fox was horrified at the idea of plain guns wearing his name. His solution: stamp the early ones as made by “The Sterlingworth Company of Philadelphia,” a company that did not exist, and sell them as the finest $25 hammerless shotgun in the world. By 1910 he swallowed his pride and claimed them as Foxes.

This one is an early “pin gun,” named for the recessed hinge-pin head you can see on the outside of the frame, the way the old Parkers and Fox’s earliest Baltimore guns were built. Fox dressed those pins flush on later Sterlingworths, so that exposed pin is a quick tell that you’re holding one of the early ones.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“A. H. Fox Sterlingworth ‘Pin Gun’ Double Barrel Shotgun.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/631/a-h-fox-sterlingworth-pin-gun-double-barrel-shotgun. Accessed 28 July 2026.

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