Faked/Sleeved Titanic Barrels - pics
 

I just wanted to show some pictures and get some ideas about this Parker - such as any general idea WHEN and perhaps who did the work?

The story is short - my father purchased this DH (1903) at an auction around 1990 plus or minus 3 or so years. It wasnt a gun he was planning on bidding on but prices were low and he came home with several things.

Clearly its been redone - case and wood (which is original) and the wood and engraving are still nice. The barrels (originally 30" damascus), however, were sleeved and someone had the "damascus" sanded out and re-engraved with Titanic.

I've always wondered about the sleeving and if it was a quality job, but it's been a fun and reliable shooter for my pops the last 20 or so years.


http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHParker6.jpg

http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHparker1.jpg

http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHParker2.jpg

http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHParker3.jpg

http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHParker4.jpg

http://www.waterdogguideservice.com/.../DHParker5.jpg

If its been hanging together for the last 20 years, it's a good enough quality sleeve job.

The grinding out of Damascus on the rib and engraving of Titanic is a touch you don't see every day.

Well noted, but it always struck me as to WHY someone would do that? In the days of pre-internet, to mislead a buyer? But you simply cant ignore/hide the lines of the sleeve.

Well Tom, as the great philosophers have pondered, how can we know the unknowable? Maybe the gunsmith who did the work was able to fool himself, never know.

I agree that it is a bit of a bonehead or at least un-required move to remark the barrels. But maybe whoever did the work wanted to make sure that people knew it could be shot without fear. There used to be a time, and I do not think we are fully past it, that if it said "Damascus" it was to be never fired.

Over the years we have seen an awful lot of Parker and other guns altered in similar ways with the express purpose of deceiving an unsuspecting buyer. Most of them should have been left alone and would be worth quite a bit more today than in their altered states.