In my years of studying Parker Brothers orders, Canadian orders are all but absent. I think Canadian customers ordered from big New York and Philadelphia dealers/wholesalers.

I know of a beautiful CHE 20 ga. with 30" Damascus barrels, no safety, and a straight grip with checkered butt that was originally sent straight from Meriden to Canada.

Unfortunately it no longer has those dangerous Damascus barrels. They were replaced with a set of 28" Belgian fluid steel barrels and not a very good fit either.



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There was a major Parker dealer/ distributor in Vancouver. I have the paperwork elsewhere but the dealer was mayor of the city and built many of that beautiful cities parks. I saw an old photo where he had three vertical rows of guns and a ladder to access the upper row.

He ordered dozens of Parkers at a time often GH 12 gauges . He was also rumored to be one of the principal gun providers for the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese in BC by custom shipped their dead home to China to be buried and he would send crates of guns in caskets to China.

I'll remember his name there is a city park named after him.

Got it. Charles E Tisdall. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Parkers.


I came across a great D hammer 10 ga very high condition but no Canadians were interested at anything near fair value. I finally connected it with a US friend. It had been the waterfowl gun of a Canadian General who became well known and much admired in WWI but even with that provenance it went begging

Bill, I'm surprised there weren't more Canadian orders in the books. There were some large sporting goods stores in Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto that sold quite a few. What I've found was that many of the Parkers I come across in Canada were built around 1898-1910. Perhaps that was a prosperous time in Canada. With people like DuBray crossing Canada selling and fitting guns at the large stores I would have thought there would be a respectable % of the total.
Dean, that 20 sounds great, except for the barrels. I'd like to see that one.
I guess fair value varies with location. While I might pay more for a Canadian made Rawbone, Marston, or Tobin than it might go for in the U.S. I find that Parker prices are about 75% of American prices. That may be more for lower grades where the paperwork and cost of getting a gun into the U.S. makes it less likely to be imported. That would matter less for a high grade or collectible Parker.
That doesn't hit me too often. I'm usually seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged Parkers go.

Bruce, I'm curious about the 24" barrels, as they might compare to longer assembled barrels. If you were to take a dimension at the muzzle of 24" barrels, how does that compare to the 24" mark on the 32" barrels? Similarly, how does the terminal end of the 24" rib compare to the 24" mark of the 32" barrels?
One would assume the factory did not keep barrels tubes of different tapers in anticipation of finished lengths, and as the tubes would be touching at the muzzle of the 24" barrels, and significantly separated if they were barrels subsequently cut to 24", the tapers must therefore be more dramatic on the 24" gun (which, I might add, is one killer of a gun)

I noticed the rib engraving differs in the 2 shown on page 1,not just in direction of arrows but the Conn on one and the other lettered CT U.S.A. .

I have a VH 1915, 16ga 0frame with barrels lettered Conn, and recently acquired a 20ga. 0 frame VHE set of barrels lettered CT U.S.A. that date 1916. Both are lettered Vulcan Steel. I am wondering if the rib on the 20ga.VHE set is original or a latter replacement, or when the rib marking changed?

It was during the war years that the Conn. was changed to CT. It may also have to do with the sourcing of the rough barrel tubes not coming from Europe any longer due again to the war.

There is a great deal of information on this in The Parker Story.

There is also information in TPS regarding an earlier question from another poster about when USA bagan to appear on the rib legend.





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THANK YOU BRIAN!!!