Notice how gracefully the forearm flows into the action ? Why are Europeans so facinated with full length fore ends? Nice German engraving though. Carving looks well done, but checkering would have looked better. A short Stevens style (44 or 44 1/2) forearm with checkering would have looked much better,IMHO. And, what's the seam in the upper tang?          ...MIKE...

    Oh yeah !  The seam on the upper tang !  Mike, I had to go back for a second look, since I missed it initially,

   Do you think maybe the Smith cut the tang for some reason (like to make it shorter would be my guess, daah) and later thought better of what he had done ?

  He probably "V-ed" the underside and ran a bead of weld to reattach it.

  Any other opinions on the upper tang seam ?

   Creedmoormatch

    BP, your posting is more likely what has happened to the upper tang and would be in keeping with the high degree of craftsmanship that is seen over the whole of the project.

    The Smith or Smiths who accomplished this fine work was/were obviously very talented individual/s, and had they been replacing a sawed off tang, they would have eliminated what at first appears to be a space/seam left between the two pieces of metal.

    I'm going with the "step to accommodate a one hole tang sight base" theory.         

   Creedmoormatch

The saying about a $10.00 horse with a $100.00 saddle comes to mind.

I doubt that the top tang is anything more than a broken tang that was repaired by a weld that failed, not at all uncommon with these frames. I suspect it was broken when an attempt was made to bend it, it would be interesting to see the lower tang, it is shorter than usual. These tangs don't like to be bent. 

While the engraving and barrel work appear good, the unsightly hammer extension welding is not up to the quality of the rest of the work. The color difference is from the difference in the materials used, the Stevens frames often turn plum when hot blued.

I sriously doubt the top tang was broken and repaired. Why would they step the tang when repairing it, when a flush tang repair would have been invisible once it was engraved. The step in the tang was done purposely, and from the lack of wear to the lower portion I'd say it was covered for most of it's life. Like many old guns this one was converted to a scope at some time judging from the holes on top the receiver, so the tang sight was taken off and got spearated from the gun.
Just too nice a gun to have left anything ugly showing without a purpose. The bottom of the hammer is a bit flawed, but top appears to be on par with the rest of the build, a bit overdone.

  I absolutely hate it when I ask the Seller a perfectly logical question on Gun Broker, E-bay, or where ever; and the response is "I'm selling it for a friend and haven't an answer for you"

 That seems to be an evasion to me.  Why doesn't the listing Seller ask the question of the owner and then reply.

 Most likely the piece is the result of a house burglary in the first place and cycled through a pawn shop loan arrangement.

  Creedmoormatch

I love the carving and engraving. It would look perfect being held by a German camel jocky.

They're called "guest workers", Joe!  When my daughter was in Bremen for a year as a high school exchange student, she was mistaken for "Persian" a number of times...her Mom's Hispanic good looks coming through!  (And yes, she shoots Schuetzen rifles!)

David