Help..Real or not

[Roy E. Barley]

About 15 years ago I received a Parker from my cousin who died from a stroke. This hung over his fireplace for years, after he bought it at a church auction of donated items. After I received it I placed it in my gun cabinet and forgot about it. This winter I decided to clean a number of the shotguns and I decided to start with this parker. Now I am not sure if it is a Parker. I went looking for a serial number and where the serial number should be on the water mark. It is stamped with the number 13. The barrel is marked on the top rib with "LAMINATED". The side plates have only the name "Parker", not "Parker Bros." There is a lot of scrolling with a pair of Quail, I think, on it. Even the trigger guard has scrolling on it. It is very faint. In the stock there is a gold colored "plug" in the bottom of it. Any help I would appreciate. Thank you, Roy

[Rick Losey]

Welome Roy

pictures will help. But there have been a few parkers that are not Parker Brothers gun posted lately.

without the Parkers Brothers or Meriden markings - unseen the guess is that it is not an American Parker

Check the under side of the barrels for proof marks and we can tell you if it is a UK or Belgium gun labeled Parker

one for example - http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8749&highlight=birmingham

[Roy E. Barley]

Thank you for the replies. The markings under the barrel are identical to the one that is shown in the link. Not a Parker Bros.... Just a Parker.
Again..Thank you, Roy

[John Farrell]

Comment from my 12/01/2012 post

Here is some information about the name Parker. In the late 1700s to the mid 1800s the person in charge of the Royal Navy's armoury of ships cannons and supplies was known as the Parker. Ships captains, gunnery officers, and gunnery mates went to the shipyard to fit out their ships with necessary cannon and ammunition to carry out the orders of the Royal Navy High Command while asea. The Parker had a master list of ships and the size of the guns he was authorized to fit them with. He also had a table of what and how much shot, cannon balls, fuse and slow match each ship was authorized to be issued. The Parker was an important position in the Royal Navy. (Source - Patrick O'Brien, author of 22 books on the English navy 1790 - 1815)

The name was also given to the keeper of private parks on estates in the 1500s and later. They were said to have a Parkership, a highly coveted title, and were responsible for arresting or otherwise dealing with poachers. If a poacher killed a deer the Parker was held responsible and could lose his Parkership as a result. (Source - O.E.D.) For that reason the Parker was particularly vicious in dealing with rural folks looking for an easy meal. Mantraps, booby trap shotguns, snares etc. were regularly used to catch and hold poachers for the application of justice.

The common rabbit was called a warrener, parker, sweetheart and hedgehog. They were plentiful in the countryside, and in gentlemen's pleasure grounds. (Source - O.E.D.) Rabbits were fair game for Sunday dinner. It would not be unreasonable to consider that the name on the gun was indicative of what it was intended to harvest - parkers.

[Rick Losey]

that's possible - but the habit in the UK at the time was to put either the gunmakers name when they made or had the gun made, on some guns it was just the lock maker's name on the lock or often the iron monger's name on the lock or rib, not unlike our "hardware" store guns from makers like Cresent.

William Parker was a known British maker in the mid 1800's - well known enough that Traditions made a modern copy of one of his pistols.