No Sir, we've had real early ones with the hard rubber ( black plastic) and a few weeks later they started putting on the walnuts, with the sculpting ( contour) at the top, rear of each grip panel............
It looks like the bottom of the panels have some taper to them.
I've seen that checkering pattern before on XR3 panels. Not sure who did them, but you do see those from time to time.
Chet15