Engraving question

[Brush Buster]

Mostly over the years of Parker Gathering I have gravitated toward the early 1900 Guns ,especially the D Grades , at one point I owned quite a few Parkers "20" or so and over half were D Grades ,Hammer and Hammerless ,just my thing I guess ! Recently my latest Parker purchase was a Remington Era gun and while examining it ,it hit me the Dogs were on the wrong side of the receiver ,the Pointer on the right and the Setter on the left so immediately I ran to the safe to examine the only other Remington era Parker I have and lo and behold that Setter was on the left and the Pointer on the right also , now I'm not sure which side they were on when I last put it in the safe but I am positive which side they are on now ! When did this Engraving exchange take place ,does any one know ?

[Dean Romig]

To the best of my knowledge Russ, it happened after the Parker operation physically moved to Ilion... in any case it happened well after Remington took ownership.

And I've always wondered why that change took place - was it a 'conscious' or intentional change or was somebody just not paying attention to 'tradition.'



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[Brush Buster]

Thanks for the reply Dean ,I wondered the same thing ! It seems odd that is would have been a board room decision unless Remingtons top brass wanted to set their guns apart from the earlier guns ! You have to wonder what the earliest Serial # is with this positioning of the dogs is ? I only own two Remington Era Guns but my earliest Serial # is 240983 ,CHE 20 Gauge ,26" Barrels Straight English Style Stock with a Small Beaver Tail ,it also has the dogs displaced !

[Dean Romig]

I know your fabulous CHE very well. What is the positioning of the dogs on that one?


If I had to guess about the choice of where to position the setter and the pointer my guess would be that it was the elder Robert Runge, he being the chief engraver on Parkers under Remington and was the chief engraver for Parker Bros. from the time of Frederick Anschutz's death in 1930 I believe. Maybe he just wanted to set Ilion manufacture apart from Meriden manufacture in his own way.





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[Brush Buster]

The Setter is on the left and the Pointer is on the right ! It would be nice if the members checked their Remington Era Guns and post their findings and we could get an idea of when this engraving change actually took place ! I could be wrong but I don't recall this ever being discussed before on our site !