Funny you should ask, John. As you know, I never let a trap gun remain without provenance. One of my twenties was ordered by William Coleman Bristol, in 1917. He was the U.S. District Attorney for Portland, Oregon. It is described in an article in the Winter 2016 Parker Pages by my friend, Frank Halsey, who owned it before me. I discovered the gun in a letter from another owner addressed to Dick Baldwin at Remington, inquiring about its history. Dick or his daughter gifted me a file of letters that were written to Remington over the years by Parker owners. I discussed the gun with Frank at a Southern Side by Side over dinner after it appeared in an auction catalog. He outbid me at that auction, but later consigned it to Julia's Auction when he became ill. I had the full file of correspondence and provenance for some years, and gifted it to Frank after he bought the gun. Frank was a serious trap gun collector.
My second twenty was discovered on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, being shot in ATA competition by H. Earle Cooper from Chestertown. He is presumed to be using the second barrel, a twelve gauge 32" barrel numbered to the gun. The 234,000 series gun is too late for order book entry, but is assumed to have been ordered by Marine Corps Colonel R.M. Cutts, because it has a Cutts Compensator mounted. Colonel Cutts spent a lot of time in the Maryland, D.C. area and is mentioned in Parker order books pre-1934. He was apparently experimenting with his compensator on the 20 gauge barrel. One order book entry mentions Colonel Cutts ordering a 26" single trap if I recall correctly. The short barrel was for the installation of one of his compensators. He also ordered Ithaca trap guns to experiment with his compensator. At least part of his son's estate was sold in Maryland in the 1970s at Sloan's Auction in my home town, Rockville, MD. His son, R.M. Cutts lll, was a Marine Corps Brigadier General. Unfortunately, I never saw any gun related items at the auction house. However, when I was in my teens, I saw a Cutts equipped Ithaca Knick in the front window of Tendler's Sales, a D.C. pawn shop. It was a throwaway gun, priced at about $125. This was probably one of the Ithacas mentioned by Walt Snyder
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