POTD: The Syracuse Arms Directory Gun – Built for the Cover

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a shotgun that was built to be photographed. Syracuse Arms of Syracuse, New York was incorporated in 1893 to build doubles on Frank Hollenbeck’s patents, which got sold on having fewer parts than anything else going. Hollenbeck walked out in 1895 and the gun was renamed from The Hollenbeck to The Syracuse. They only ever made doubles, and until late 1904 only hammerless ones.

This gun was finished around 1894 and put on the cover of the company directory for 1894 and 1895. That is what it was built for. Before catalog photography got good, the way you sold a high grade line was to build one exceptional gun, engrave it to the limit, and put its picture in front of every buyer in the country. The gun in the illustration was always the best thing the shop could produce, and it doubled as the prototype for whatever the top grade was going to be.

You can see why they picked it, and I think it still holds up. Four game scenes cut into the action: setters on point, a brace of pointers, a pair of woodcocks underneath, and a setter with a woodcock on the trigger guard. Fleur-de-lis carved into the fences.

Syracuse’s top grade ran 475 dollars in 1904, which was about a year’s wages for a working man. Obviously the picture was not aimed at him.

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!

“Prototype Syracuse Arms ‘The Directory Gun’ High Grade Shotgun.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/424/prototype-syracuse-arms-the-directory-gun-high-grade-shotgun. Accessed 14 Sept. 2026.

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