What can you tell me about this gun

[Michael Copperthite]

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.

[Rick Losey]

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]

Thank you any idea about the value?

[Rick Losey]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Chuck Bishop]

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]

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]

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.

[Michael Copperthite]

When we were only selling 25,000 pies a day.. Parker Brother's Pie Ad?

[edgarspencer]

There's the proof; You're genetically destined to be a Parker collector. Your Grandfather's gun must have formed a lasting impression when he moved to Meriden. I would have that ad framed and hung on the wall of my gun room.
Ironically, my family roots are also Meriden, though the Scottish side of my family came from Simsbury CT.

[Michael Copperthite]

AND THE MAN WHO TRAINED THEM



Richard A. Wolters's Fetching Story
The Washington Post (Tue, 02 Nov 1993) It's crisp November; bird hunters have a little extra spring in their step as duck and quail seasons draw near. But the annual joy in the gun-dog set is tempered this year by the death of the guru of American trainers, Richard A. Wolters. "We've lost a true renaissance man," mourned Mike Copperthite, a Washington political strategist who was given his first Labrador retriever by Averell Harriman decades ago and who has trained all his pups since by the Wolters method.Indeed, Wolters, 73, was off doing the unlikeliest thing when he died. He had just bought his first ultralight aircraft and was taking it for a solo spin near his home in Hanover, Va., outside Richmond, when …
...But the annual joy in the gun-dog set is tempered this year by the death of the guru of American trainers, Richard A. Wolters. "We've lost a true renaissance man," mourned Mike Copperthite, a Washington political strategist who was...... Continue reading about
It's crisp November; bird hunters have a little extra spring in their step as duck and quail seasons draw near. But the annual joy in the gun-dog set is tempered this year by the death of the guru of American trainers, Richard A. Wolters.
"We've lost a true renaissance man," mourned Mike Copperthite, a Washington political strategist who was given his first Labrador retriever by Averell Harriman decades ago and who has trained all his pups since by the Wolters method.
Indeed, Wolters, 73, was off doing the unlikeliest thing when he died. He had just bought his first ultralight aircraft and was taking it for a solo spin near his home in Hanover, Va., outside Richmond, when his ailing heart gave out Oct. …
Richard A. Wolters Dog Training Expert, 73

Published: October 14, 1993
Richard A. Wolters, an expert on training hunting dogs, died on Saturday after he landed an ultralight aircraft that he had been piloting near his farm in Hanover, Va. He was 73.
The cause was a heart attack, his family said.
Mr. Wolters wrote a number of books on dogs, including three published by Dutton, "Gun Dog" (1961), "Family Dog" (1963) and "Beau, From Both Ends of His Leash" (1966), and "The Labrador Retriever" (Petersen Prints, 1982).
Mr. Wolters was also a chemical engineer, a parachutist, a glider pilot, a teacher of art history and photography and a magazine editor who wrote extensively about dogs and field sports. He especially admired Labradors for their diligence, devotion, stamina, pleasant temperament and ability to become family pets.

[Bill Murphy]

Does your gun actually say "Parker Steel" on the rib? If so, it was probably sent back to Parker Brothers to be rebarrelled at some point, because it had Twist Steel barrels when it first left Parker Brothers.

[Bill Murphy]

If your relative was in the pie business in Georgetown, DC at the turn of the century, there is a good chance that your 16 gauge came from William Wagner on Capitol Hill. Henry had a "factory" on Capitol Hill, probably near Wagner's store at 207 1/2 Pennsylvania Avenue, Southeast. Request a letter and let us know what you find.

[Michael Copperthite]

but as there are no absolute here what could that mean

[Bill Murphy]

Post clear pictures of the barrel flats, (the bottom of the breech of the barrels). There will be a marking there that will clarify the type of barrel steel. Parker Steel is the type of fluid steel that was usually used on PH grade Parkers later than the manufacture date of your gun. Your gun is listed as a Twist Steel barrelled gun in the Serialization Book, a book whose contents are derived from the Parker Brothers stock books.

[Bill Murphy]

Analostan Island, now known as Theodore Roosevelt Island, was the site of the Analostan Gun Club, whose member, William "Uncle Billy" Wagner, was the famous Parker dealer of Capitol Hill. Apparently, Analostan Island was once owned by the Copperthite family. Google is a dangerous weapon in some hands.

[Eldon Goddard]

This thread is a great combination parkers and pies. Making me hungry though.

[John Taddeo]

What is the critter in the first picture hanging on the left side of the cloths line . If it's a coon it looks to be as big as that pointer.