[QUOTE=Dave Noreen;8618]The legend on the barrels is hand stamped with individual letters --
She is a well worn old fowling piece, but she was used by Nash to 21 or 22 years. The Czar never saw his alledged Parker Bros. double, and likely had no hint of its existance.[\
I wonder if those stamped letters were really done by the hands of the late B. Becker- or a 'counterfeit'-I have a lady friend who is a forensic handwriting expert, I am going to show her a printed copy of this.
Even to my inexperienced eyes, the left barrel characters and alignment vary from those evidenced on the right barrel. Also, this special Fox for TNB was made in 1927- when Burt Becker might have been at his "prime"- GBE reported that he made exehibition grade guns for Parker and Remington. he might have resorted to this rather "sloppy' and mis-aligned hand stamping under a recoil pad or inside the forearm- but to mark up a very high grade and engraved Fox with this type of "stamping"? raises a question to my layman's eyes-
Also, GBE mentioned in "Mr. Buck's guns" that the first Becker had a distinctive top lever configuration- Granted, the late GBE wasn't the AH Fox-ist that a Michael McIntosh might seem to be, BUT- GBE did start his bird hunting career with a 12 Sterlingworth, prior to his being bequeathed a 12 bore Purdey-
Also, when did Fox start the 'Barrels Not Guaranteed' stamp on the barrel flats- a "marketing error?" that may have mis-lead potential Fox buyers into thinking their Chromox steel tubes might fail under shooting conditions?? I believe what Fox may have meant to say was "Pattern percentages NOT Guaranteed"-- anyway, I'm sure not a player at this table either, stakes will be way too high for me- IF this gun is indeed the first "Bo-Whoop"--