Vassos and the streamlined Sportsman model Remington Arms Shotgun

Remington Sportsman 48 - Model 11-48 designed by John Vassos. Image is from the John Vassos papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Vassos designed the "skeet" grade Model 11-48SA and Sportsman Model 48SA for Remington Arms. These lightweight auto-loading  shotguns have become sought after for their styling. After World War II, Remington developed a family of guns that would look similar and share some componants. There were two versions - standard and the sportsman, the value priced model. They were part of a line of gas-operated streamlined shotguns introduced after 1948. The Remington Streamliners brochure explained the appeal of these guns in ergonomic terms -  “handle it and you’ll feel, lighter weight, amazing balance…gun becomes part of you, hand fitting grip and fore-end.”

Vassos was a game hunter enjoying the hunting fields of Connecticut and Southern New Jersey. Vassos participated inthis sport all year long and appreciated how different field trials and breeding were from the hierarchy in his corporate job. “This sport is strictly democratic," he wrote “you will meet a plumber, a banker or top business executive in the field.” He wrote lovingly about his hunting dogs who were like children and published two books about them - Dogs Are Like That and Rex and Lobo.

Vassos had a strong relationship with he company - Remington Arms having designed kitchen utensils for the company in the 1930s.  His ʺMoby Dick"ʺ streamlined knife for which he received a design patent in 1939 was praised for its easy handling if not its quirky name.  Vassos improved each of the knives in the Moby Dick collection and heightened name recognition by inscribing the name on the blade and expanding Remington’s presence in the kitchen through the "No Fumble Rack” he created for a streamlined kitchen. The cutlery won the 1940 Golden Seal Jury Award at the New York World’s Fair. 
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Photo from Dogs Are Like That (E.P. Dutton, 1941) with photos by Beth Dickinson