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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:42 pm |
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This one went back to Parker to have the forend and rib added.
In a previous post, some had raised the issue of Damascus guns having a ventilated rib. Puglisi has a D damascus vent rib gun offered now. This is the only known Bernard vent rib gun.
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 Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 02:03 pm by Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:42 pm |
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Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:43 pm |
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 Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:44 pm by Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:45 pm |
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Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:45 pm |
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Bruce Day
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Bruce Day
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 01:46 pm |
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Bruce Day
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Larry Frey
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 02:31 pm |
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Bruce,
What a great gun. Do you know how long the barrels are? If Bernard guns are the theme for the Annual meeting I sure hope that gun shows up.
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Robert Delk
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 02:35 pm |
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| I sure would like to know the complete history of that gun and the thought process of the owner who had the rib put on.Wow!!
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 02:45 pm |
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Larry: 30". I don't know if Josh got enough committments to warrant a Bernard exhibit. Maybe 15 or so guns is not enough, but on the other hand, you don't ever see that many anyway and this would offer the best chance to have a quantity of them together. I had included this gun and one or two of mine plus my list of known owners, but its a short list.
Bob: this gun was sent back and the work was done, that's all that is known. We know that trapshooting became popular and that there was a move among shooters for vent ribs and beavertail forends, at the time termed "trap" forends. Some vent rib Parkers I have shot are set up to shoot high for a rising target, but this one shoots dead on.
Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:00 pm by Bruce Day
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Robert Delk
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:14 pm |
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| I have always wondered what the Parker workmen thought of their work and what they produced. I wonder if the Parker employees got a 'kick"out of producing the unusual and fine in their work and are there any recorded or anecdotel comments from the Parker workmen contemporary with their employment? I would loved to have heard the comments when this gun came back to be fitted with a vent rib.
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Bill Murphy
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:30 pm |
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| I am sure the workers did a bit of head shaking at some of these weird orders. I don't know whether they got a kick out of the unusual requests or just plodded along following work orders. I hope they were working by the hour and not by the job when they built some of these oddballs.
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:42 pm |
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Saying this gun is weird or oddball are not descriptions I would choose. Its a wonderful and unusual, indeed unique, piece of Parker craftsmanship in my opinion.
Weird or oddball implies that something is not desireable, and the market history of this gun demonstrates its high desireability among serious Parker collectors. While I do not own any beavertail or vent ribs Parkers, the market shows their high collectibility.
Anyway, that's my thought. A person can say I know nothing about Parkers, as every once in while a fellow who knows everything says, and that's only the way I see it.
Bob, TPS is the only source of worker comments I know of, and I don't recall reading any specific comments about individual guns. John Davis is a student of trapshooting lore, having written a book about it, but I'm not aware that this gun has ever been mentioned in the literature.
Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:51 pm by Bruce Day
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Bill Murphy
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:49 pm |
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| Bruce, I certainly didn't mean "oddball" or "weird" in a derogatory way. My Parker collection is themed around unusual variations.
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Bruce Day
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:55 pm |
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| Bill, I accept that. Your Gold Hearts Parker is truly a wonderous gun, and to be truthful, when I first saw it I was taken aback. But after a while, you learn to appreciate it for the wonderous piece that it is. I kinda like them all, not necessarily to own, but to look at and admire.
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Larry Frey
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:56 pm |
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I'm not a big fan of vent ribs but I do hope to someday own a beavertail Parker. I think it would be great for those 90 degree days on the sporting clays course.
Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 03:58 pm by Larry Frey
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Robert Delk
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 04:12 pm |
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| I once owned a complete collection of "Forest and Stream" magazine and spent months going through them reading every thing that was written about Parkers,which was quite a bit, but never did anyone one commenting about their high grade Parker mention the individual workers who built it.Today it is common to see someone mentioning the engraver or stocker of their custom built double but it appears the workers of yesteryear toiled in obscurity.I would imagine the engravers were paid well but not anything like the engravers are today,not to mention the 'mechanics" who installed the ribs,single triggers,repaired broken guns,etc.We hold our master smiths in high esteem today and most of the really good ones are household names in gun circles,but hand work is a rare commodity these days.I just hope the gunmakers of yore knew how good they were and knew some sort of satisfaction beyond the kind that comes with a paycheck.
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Bruce Day
PGCA Member
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 04:25 pm |
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| Bob, if you don't have The Parker Story, although its costly, I recommend it to you. Volume II has a lot about the Parker craftsmen and they are recorded with the history of the Parker gun.
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Robert Delk
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 04:31 pm |
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| Bruce, I bought the TPS as soon as it came out and my wife thought I was crazy for spending the money.I even had my picture taken with it as I got each volume.I may be short on guns but I am very long on anything written about them. I have collected books,catalogs and ephemera on guns for over 50 years.Best money I ever spent,with the exception of money spent on my family.I only wish I had someone to leave it to that was interested in it.
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Bill Murphy
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 05:55 pm |
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| Robert, that is a problem many researchers and paper collectors have. That is, what to do with it when you are through doing the job you thought was important. I am thinking that "the highest bidder" is the best keeper of good research material. Institutional donations may look good to the tax man, but the "black hole of curatorship" always looms on the horizon. At least the guns come back to the surface every 21 years at the max, with some exceptions. It's too bad that the research material sometimes gets buried forever. Last edited on Thu Apr 9th, 2009 05:58 pm by Bill Murphy
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Robert Delk
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Posted: Thu Apr 9th, 2009 07:13 pm |
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Bill,I believe what you are saying. I can think back to some of the files and "paper" that some of my now deceased friends had.I think most of it was tossed even before anyone had a chance to speak up for it.I rescued some from an industrial sized dumpster that the widow had brought in to throw anything she did not recognize as worth keeping.I sold the 4 volume set of Chinn's machine gun books and gave her the money. She was very surprised at the value someone had put on her worthless paper!
I have made my son aware of the value of all my "paper" and even as a child he was helping me keep track of it so hopefully he will at least make an effort to find it a good home.I'll have to make sure everything is labeled with the name of a possible buyer/auction house or a "street price".
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