How Much Is That Parker In The Window?

[Christopher Lien]

I'm conducting some research on an interesting old photo, My question: Do any of the elder members here ever recall (in their younger days) walking by Sporting good stores and seeing various Parker's for sale in the large display windows?... And---would also like to know if anyone remembers an "EATON'S" Sporting goods/store on the eastern shores, perhaps in the Silver Spring Maryland area?....

Best, CSL

[Destry L. Hoffard]

That would be interesting if somebody actually did remember seeing new Parkers for sale in the window. The only two original Parker owners I ever heard of have both passed on but there are still older gentlemen that could remember them being for sale.

Post the picture Chris, be fun to see it.

Destry

[Dave Noreen]

I can only go second hand. My Father always talked about a Parker in the window display at Seattle Hardware when he worked there from late 1935 to 1940. He said he could have gotten it for $100 as an employee, but the best he could do was a Remington Sportsman at his employee price of $38. About 1960 his Sportsman was replaced by a 2-frame VH-Grade Parker Bros. 12-gauge, that was shipped to Seattle Hardware in 1902.

[Austin W Hogan]

I can remember a 1930 vintage Win 94 that was in the window at Van Horne Hardware in Fultonville NY until the mid 1950's. I handled and shot Harvey Donaldson's GHE 20, which was his window display in his sporting goods store in Little Falls NY in the 1920's and 30's.
I have Harvey's fly rod display rack, which I use as a barrel rack on my cleaning bench.
Best, Austin

[George Lander]

I can remember new Parkers and Fox guns in the window & display cases of S.B. Mc Master Sporting Goods in Columbia, South Carolina in the 1940s. I passed by their store every afternoon on my way to catch the bus home.

Best Regards, George

[Dale Zywina]

Eatons was a large deparment store here in Canada and sold almost everything including firearms.There are many Parker guns order and associated with the Eatons family of Canada, unfortunatly the great company went under in the late 1990's early 2000'nds, I do not no if this is the same company your trying to research, but PM me if you need more information, I know how you feel I was trying to find a Iver Johnson Sporting Goods Company and evryone said there a utility shotgun co., but for the most part they got it wrong. It was one fellow who straightened it out, regards Dale in Canada:bigbye:

[Kevin McCormack]

Chris; an "Eaton's" store, Silver Spring MD, and the Eastern Shore (of MD) are tri-mutually exclusive. Silver Spring MD is over an hour's drive from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the eastern terminus of which lands on the Eastern Shore. As Dale Z. points out, I think Eaton's was a large Canadian firm. I have never heard of an Eaton's store by name anywhere around this area (DE-MD-VA).

[Christopher Lien]

Thanks for the input gents... I was aware of the large Canadian Eaton's store, but thought perhaps this might had been a family run Mom/Pop store by folks here in the U.S with the same name... As many of you know I've been collecting old Parker and gunning related photos for quite sometime, and although I've seen several early sporting window displays, this is the first with Parker's... The original old photo was acquired a few years ago and has great subject matter if you like Parker 20&28 small bores with beavertails, and long barreled 12ga vent/rib trap models... The photo measures 7.5 X 9.5, and the Edgeworth tobacco tins should probably date the image... Photo was found in the Silver Spring MD area, and has hand penciled sketches of Skeet and Trap fields on the back with the written words "Skeet shooting exhibit"... Thought the history buffs here would enjoy this nostalgic trip back in time to simpler days and familiar shooting irons.

Second from top left is a Parker with card that reads "28 Ga Double Barrel Woodcock Gun", and bottom left is another that reads "20 Ga Quail Gun Parker"... Bottom right is a long barreled vent/rib Parker (Looks like DHE) card reads "12 Ga Double Barrel Trap Gun", and just above that looks to be a Fox Skeet gun... 3 images below.

Best, CSL
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http://www.webpak.net/~dslcslien/1Eaton's_OA_Tag1.jpg
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http://www.webpak.net/~dslcslien/1Eaton'sLSW.jpg
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http://www.webpak.net/~dslcslien/1Eaton'sRSW.jpg.

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[Gregory Miller]

One of the Parkers appears to have a Pachmayr white line pad on it. The Pachmayr's site claims that they introduced pads as a product in 1949 "If" that is what I am seeing on the gun, that would date this picture to 1949 or later. See http://www.pachmayr.com/about.php

[Dean Romig]

Looking at the pictures and seeing ads for photo developing and pipes and tobacco I couldn't help thinking of early drug stores and then "Eaton The Druggist" popped into my mind. I googled it and found that Ray Eaton, a pharmacist, bought the Woodbeck Drug Store in 1910. It was a Rexall drug store located at 103 - 105 Farmer St. in Otsego, Michigan and was the first of the "Eaton the Druggist" chain.
So, maybe he sold sporting goods too . . . ?

That 28 ga. "Woodcock Gun" looks to have checkered cheeks too. The highlights on the side of the frame are probably not gold dogs and birds as I first thought.

[John Dunkle]

Hi CSL,

As always - your pics are wonderful..! I mean that.. Whenever you post them - it takes as all back to another time and place.. I wish I could help you with some information from "back then" - but, unfortunately - I'll have to wait for yet the "next generation" to post pictures from the '60s and '70s.. Your picture is from an era I can only imagine..

Again - thanks for sharing!

John

[Destry L. Hoffard]

White Line was it's own brand of recoil pads before it was bought by Pachmyer so it could be earlier.

If Iver Johnson sold some high end sporting goods that's all well and good but about 99% of the "saturday night special" revolvers and a good portion of the cheap single shots here in the US are under their brand so saying they were a mostly low end gun company is correct. I've got a postcard around somewhere that shows their store, I'll have to dig it out.


Destry
Destry

[Bob Roberts]

Soda sign, two pipe displays, large, medium and small arrays of tins of pipe tobacco, $.13 for small tin, Kodak sign, a sign for 24 hour film developing and printing, "Skeet shooting exhibit" notation on back of image, odd mix of gun mfg - yes, looks like maybe a drug store exhibit, but more likely a male oriented newspaper, magazine, tobacco and sundries store, less likely a gun shop, IMHO.

[Derrick Stewart]

Pictures like that makes me think, man I was born 75 to 100 yrs to late.
Very nice pic Chris. Thanks for sharring.

[Dave Suponski]

Chris,Good to hear from ya and thanks for the picture :)

[Austin W Hogan]

The White Line pad was originated by Mershon sometime before WW II. Pachmayer acquired the pattern (or company) after WW II. It was rare to see a good gun without a Mershon in the 1950's and 1960's. Look back on the Parker Pages article on the Invincibles, and you will see 200,000 wearing one.

Best, Austin

[Christopher Lien]

Great comments by all, glad you fellas enjoyed the old photo... Good to see and hear from all the usual suspects, it's been a hot summer here the Pacific Northwest...

John Dunkle,
Thanks for the note, always good to see you here... I'm still keeping an eye out for items related to your Grand-Dad G.L.O.

Dean,
Thanks for the information, I'll follow up on the Eaton drug store tip... The 28ga "Woodcock-gun" you mentioned looks like it may be a G? grade Skeet gun. Here's a close-up view of the side and cheeks, hard to tell if they are checkered, but that sure looks like a nice piece of wood for the stock...

Best, Chris
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http://www.webpak.net/~dslcslien/1Eaton's28PB.jpg.
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[Dean Romig]

Now that we can see the stock more closely Chris, it looks to possibly be a restock as the checkering pattern is not like the G grade checkering we are accustomed to. The one shown has a great deal more coverage than a G would have and toward the head of the stock there are only two points where a G and a D would have three points and C and above are different entirely. Grade 0 and 1 have two point checkering patterns but are not nearly as elaborate in coverage as the one shown.

Thanks for the close-up Chris.

Regards, Dean

[Austin W Hogan]

It is my experience that BTFE checking is not grade dependent. I have VH's with sophisticated checking , a DH with the same pattern as an AH, a DH that looks like a VH, and a CSB and BSB with the same pattern.

Best, Austin

[Dean Romig]

I'm in agreement with you Austin as regards the forend checkering - it is the checkering on the grip of the stock at the area closest to the head of the stock that I have referenced.

Best, Dean

[Bill Murphy]

I'll go with the drug store theory. I also think that maybe these are used guns. The slip on pad and the Jostam would be very unlikely on a new Parker. The pricing of various items would be a better clue to the age of the picture than the recoil pad or the configuration of the guns. In some unlikely areas, very high grade guns were displayed. When I was barely a teenager, Tendler's Sales Company, a jewelry and pawn shop at 913 D Street NW Washington, D.C. displayed English double rifles and high grade American shotguns in the window. This was in the early sixties. It is assumed that these guns were unredeemed pawn items. Chris' picture could be as late as the fifties or sixties.