Just CAme Aboard

[edgarspencer]

Hi to all my new and old Parker friends. I've been lurking for a few days, a darn fewer than other hobby related websites though. I moderated one of the Land Rover websites for years and always appreciated when a new guy stopped in to say hello.
My dad and I were Parker collectors for decades before the PGCA. Infact, he's been gone for almost 30 years. I don't have so many of the guns left what with the kids and schools etc, but still a nice collection to wipe down and reflect.
When I was a teenager, I took an old Tee Latch Lifter action to a show and swapped it for an S&W. I got smarter as I got older. Only recently did I start paying a little more attention to the stuff we used to consider dust collectors. I traded what many would consider a beautiful percussion target rifle for what I thought was a 14ga. 0 grade lifter. Not wanting to appear too eager to close the deal, I really spent very few minutes checking the gun over, but when I got home was delighted to find it's a 16ga, with lightened watertables.
I'm like Ralphy in The Christmas Story, checking the mailbox for my letter for this gun.
Anyway, Hi All, Glad to be here legally.

[Robin Lewis]

Welcome to the forum. There is lots of information to be found here, shared by some very knowledgeable folks. As a Parker collector, I'm sure you will enjoy it. Again, welcome aboard!

[Dean Romig]

Hello there Edgar, and welcome!

Coincidentally our webmaster, John Dunkle (who I'm sure will come along soon to say Hi) developed and runs the Porsche Club website as well as this one and who knows how many others.

If you can post some pictures of your Parkers we'd all be interested in seeing them.

Dean

[Dave Suponski]

Edgar, Welcome aboard! Stick around there is a whole world of knowledge here and some fun to be had as well. There is a lot of knowledge that has been unearthed since the day's of your active collecting.

[edgarspencer]

Dean,
Here a couple of pics of the little 16. It's an 0 grade, 0 frame. I was initially excited at the possibility of having a 14, but not horribly disappointed to find out it was a 16.

[Robin Lewis]

16 ga Parker hammer guns are the greatest, those are my weak spot. Do you hunt with it?

[edgarspencer]

16 ga Parker hammer guns are the greatest, those are my weak spot. Do you hunt with it?

Robin, I've only had the 16 lifter for a week, but my favorite partridge gun is a VHE 16 that was my dad's since new.
As an interesting (well, to me anyway) aside, my dad was born in Meriden, and his father was the foundry manager for Parkers. My grandfather wasn't a sport, but his first cousin, Ernest Spencer, who also owned a foundry, was, and took his brother-in-law, and my dad, on my dad's birthday, to the Parker showroom and bought him that VHE. Ernie's brother-in-law bought a VH 20, which I later got from his daughter. I later passed it back to her son.

[Jack Cronkhite]

Now there's an intriguing "original owner/family" Parker story. Right from the Meriden showroom. Most interesting. Pictures and more pictures always appreciated. Welcome and enjoy.
Cheers,
Jack

[Robin Lewis]

Edgar,

Great family story!

[Dean Romig]

A wonderful piece of family Parker history!

A lifter 16 is a very desirable Parker, regardless of grade. You can expect to receive numerous PMs from people asking to have 'first refusal' when you decide to "turn it out".

More pictures of your Parkers would be enjoyed by all.

Dean

[edgarspencer]

Thank you to all who welcomed me aboard and made me feel at home. I'll post a picture of the VHE16 on the thread about 'original owners'. I'm sad to say that getting three kids through prep school and college meant having to sell many of the notable Parkers, but they included a VHE 410, CHE 20, a few DHE small bore guns, a BHE 20, and one of the original Widgeon Club 32" Barreled AHE 20s. He also had a Joe Jurjevic built VHE 28 with 38-55 double rifle barrels, tastefully upgraded. The novelty of it wore off dad and he traded that one in for one of his English guns. My son has one of the DHE 20s and I gave another to my dads first grandson (my sister's son doesn't shoot or hunt, and I'm not above making a stab at getting that one back). There were very few Thursday nights that we didn't head down to Safari Outfitters, when they were still in Ridgefield CT. Gary could sell my father manure in a barnyard. Back then, I was putting most of my efforts and money in Colts and Winchesters and still have a mess of each, but alas, not so many Parkers. Now, I'm in my autumn days, and trying to condense whats left into a more manageable collection.