None came with cases from the factory unless requested by the customer, but the Parker Bros. catalogs over the years offered a variety of cases of all types made by half a dozen suppliers. Occasionally the Order Books will include a notation specifying a certain type of case and/or reloading or cleaning supplies with the gun, and these were usually provided from the catalog offerings.
The customer had several choices - canvas 2-piece breakdown with leather trim, leather shell leg of muttons of varying quality and weights, and several styles of traditional English type trunk cases, including a real oak and leather style manufactured by Utica Luggage Co. of Utica NY.
These were manufactured and sold to compete directly with the English 'best' cases offered with top of the line British makers. I restored one of the Utica Luggage Co. oak and leather cases that the second Parker Invincible came in when it was ordered. It was full of mildew but luckily did not require extensive relining or repair, just "de-lousing."
The best of the 'very compact' (VC) trunk and motor cases offered by Abercrombie & Fitch were made by Brady of England (still in business today) and the Parker Reproduction cases are mimics of them with minor variations. I believe they were manufactured by Emmebi of Italy.
So far as I can date them, the heyday of American LOM cases was from about the late 1880s (catalog references) to just after WW II, when the ads for them from various makers began to disappear from Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and Sports Afield.
|
05-20-2017, 11:47 PM
Hybrid Mode