Checkering was very rare, most often on things like Winchester 1 of 1000's or factory customs. I think you might be better at this than me, but do a search on the guns of Theadore Roosevelt, his guns were mostly custom and the ones I've seen pictures of were checkered. In fact I read somewhere that the folks at the Winchester Factory Custom Shop thought he was a regular pain in the arse. Most patterns were pretty simple that I have seen and often the guns were engraved.
I hope that helps.