Cleaning/Unboxing question

[edgarspencer]

Wow!
You will probably get a better idea what to do once you un-box one or two. They may still have a preservative coating. The boxes, at least in the picture, don't appear to show any signs of moisture, so you may find there isn't much to do. Your uncle made some wise choices in what to put away.
Hope you and he are doing well. What an unfortunate way to spend his remaining years, but I'm sure your conversations bring him great joy.

PS. I too collected lever guns, and concentrated on 1894 rifles with factory special order features. I sold off a number of them a few years ago to fund my Parker interest. I always said, if a person wanted to get into collecting, the Winchester 1894 was the greatest opportunity to seek out because there are so many variations.

[CalebBungart]

Thank you, its really sad he can't get out, he would kill to walk through Tulsa for three days again. He educates me on guns everyday. We both have a pile of 94's and Marlin 39's. My collecting started by buying whatever he got in a trade that he wasn't interested in. He got all the sXs, o/u, model 12/42's and revolvers... I got my choice of the rest. This is the condition of 12-371 that is in a presentation case in the same safe as the boxes for reference.

[Wild Skies]

When you say “presentation” cases and assuming that is what’s shown in your pics, are actually the standard cases made by the Italian firm Emmebi. These cases were typically furnished with all DHE and BHE Grade Parker Reproduction guns. Hopefully your “uncle” has a case for each of his Parker Repros as they will enhance their value by several hundreds of dollars — could be as much as $500/gun or maybe even more! The original cardboard shipping boxes are of value to a collector today and to future generations of collectors, as well. One might term a presentation case as a case furnished with the A-1 Special Grade Parker Reproductions -- although they were standard for the grade, as well.

Like what has already been recommended, the guns likely have a protective coating on them and will probably require very little additional going over. As your “uncle” is a seasoned gun guy, he knows to do no harm.