What can you tell me about this gun

Michael Copperthite · 03-07-2014, 09:36 PM

Serial # 126290 here showing H. C. C. Initials. Parker Brothers # 126290 was made in 1904 Frame 0 Gage is 16 weight of the barrel is 31 Parker Steel Grade PH
Belonged to my great great grandfather Henry C. Copperthite a 79th Highlander NY and proprietor of the Connecticut Pie Baking Company. www.cocopieco.com His picture attached. How do I find out if he owned more Parker Brothers. By the way his family settled in Meriden CT after leaving the BWI as indentured servants of Scottish Descent.

OH Osthaus · 03-07-2014, 10:04 PM

welcome to the board Michael

i doubt there will be any way to search the records on the owners name. Many if not most of the Parkers were ordered through dealers either for the customer or as stock.

your gun lists as a 28" 16 - Your ancestor had good taste

Michael Copperthite · 03-07-2014, 10:09 PM

Thank you any idea about the value?

OH Osthaus · 03-07-2014, 10:33 PM

Valuing a gun without having it in hand is not easy, i am certainly not qualified to appraise, some here can give you a ball park.

I see a good size chip out of the toe of the stock and buttplate. how are the bores? and pitting, dents in the barrels? an 0 frame 28 16 is a desirable combination - but condition tops all.

Michael Copperthite · 03-07-2014, 10:47 PM

Frame 0 Gage is 16 weight of the barrel is 31 Parker Steel Grade PH
no pitting in the barrels and except for the stock it looks really good. I have two old model 12 Winchesters one a trench gun that looks beat to hell. I so love that gun and the other which I bough at an estate sale that came with two barrels and looks brand new had not been fired ever until I got it. I rather use the trench gun with cutts compensator that my dad picked up in japan after wwii for $10.
the parker will not be sold am just trying to get insurance values and to impress upon my child that it must stay in the family so any ball park price will work.
thank you

Dean Romig · 03-08-2014, 07:56 AM

The "Books" can be searched by name. It will cost you the price of a Research Letter.
Non-members pay $100 for a letter.
Members pay $40 for a letter.
Annual membership is $40.

My math tells me it is a much better deal to join the PGCA and order a letter & name search.

Michael Copperthite · 03-08-2014, 10:42 AM

we will join and then make the request.. thank you.!

Pa SxS · 03-08-2014, 01:47 PM

Dean, the "books" cannot be searched by name. If the gun is in the Order Book/Books and it was ordered by an individual, then you will get a name on the research letter. Also, if the gun was returned by an individual and is in the Order Book, you will get a name. Remember most of these guns were ordered or returned for repair by sporting goods or hardware stores.

In order to search by name or any other entry in the order, the Order Books would have to be entered into a database and broken down by name, gauge, barrel length, barrel steel, price, etc.. Anyone want to volunteer to do this? Each Order book (there are over 100 of them) has about 300 individual pages and each page has many orders on them, sometimes 30 or more guns.

Michael Copperthite · 03-08-2014, 04:05 PM

thanks. I am not being naïve but I would be surprised if research did not show Copperthite in the Parker Brothers Records. He was from Meridian and he was and or his products were know to everybody from East Haven to New Haven in that state. He was friends with politicians and his dearest friend Andrew the King Kennedy Battalion Chief of the New Haven Fire Department were know sportsmen of that era. And he was the rags to riches story that was lauded and know the King of Pie when we had 230 wagons, 600 horses and 15,000 employees turning out 14.5 million pies a year. He co founded the Columbia Club which was hunters, skeet, trap and other sports, a member of the Isaac Walton League and sportsman of the year in 1902 as a driver in pacing and trotting horse than one of the three most popular sports in America. He had several guns.

edgarspencer · 03-08-2014, 04:17 PM

Your PH has a ball grip, sometimes called a Prince Of Wales grip, and on a small frame gun, is very sexy. I can't say what your gun may be worth, but I was pleased to buy my 0 frame VH 16, with 28" barrels for just shy of $3k. It's in very nice shape, but a grade lower than yours.