Rib legends.

[John Allen]

I have a VH 12ga. #140524 marked "Parker Brothers"

[Dean Romig]

Is it on a standard concave rib or a flat top rib or a ventilated rib? Can you tell if it is roll-stamped or engraved?

Further, does it say "THE PARKER BROTHERS GUN"? With no barrel steel shown as Brian describes?





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[B. Dudley]

I think some of these posters reporting on guns with "brothers" are missing the point.

[edgarspencer]

Here are 89621, upper, and 178135, lower. Both are roll stamped on concave ribs. BBoth guns are VH grade.
Brian, I think the point is to try and determine if there is an age, grade, sn correlation to the limited use of 'Brothers.'

[Dean Romig]

The point, as I see it, is to discover what the roll die at Turnbull's was used for or on.





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[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

The point, as I see it, is to discover what the roll die at Turnbull's was used for or on.

I think it's "intended" use will remain highly speculative, in as much, as no one has ever seen it so used, on a top rib or anywhere else.

Unless Brian can get Doug to further enlighten us on the die's origin, and it's creator's intention, Finding some correlation in the use of the full spelling of Brothers, with respect to a time period, or grade use, may turn out to be the only thing that might lend some idea of it's intended use. If Brian could get Doug to let him take the die, examine it's font and compare it to known fonts used on top ribs, it maight at least give some clue. It may have just been a customer's special order request, used on one gun. I'm not holding my breath for a definitive answer, and think it will go down as one more of many unexplained Parker marking anomalies.

[Dean Romig]

I can agree with all of that Edgar, with the exception that it may have been used on just one gun... Or just twenty, or fifty guns. We know that Parker Bros. would simply engrave the ribs of just a small number of Parkers with special or unusual barrels or even just special ribs. Barrels with more standardized features would have been marked with a roll die - but here we have a roll die that may never have been used on more than a small handful of ribs. And so, the question remains, what was the purpose of this particular roll die?





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[chris dawe]

Perhaps this was already offered up ,but you guys mentioned the lefever shop who would at one time make /sleeve new barrels for Parker gun ...perhaps they had the die made up to distinguish their work in some way .

[B. Dudley]

Barrels that i have seen that were finished and matted by Lefever not been roll stamped. They were just full matted. But that is just based on the few that i have seen.

I will inquire with one contact i have (a former Lefever emplyee) as to if he knew that they had the dies and if they used them.

[Dean Romig]

I presume Doug has no explanation?





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