brian: agreed. did not think late parker colors were that bright...ed

I agree. Meriden colors had a certain translucence to them.

There is no " 'late' bone charcoal work" on Parker Guns. The receiver colors are either original Meriden bone charcoal case colors, done the exact same way (dry powder packing and firing in a furnace) throughout the life of the Meriden Parker Gun, or cyanide immersion bath colors (as opposed to dip bath as on the very earliest Perazzi guns imported into the US by Ithaca in the early 1970s). The immersion bath process gives the array and distribution of colors exactly like Brian's post beautifully shows as opposed to the "tiger stripe" distribution of colors that Bruce Day's post alludes to.

kevin: have noticed that early parker guns seem to have bright colors. later guns circa 1900 had more muted colors. seems to me that the later the gun, the more muted and subdued the colors...cept brian's 1920's example is an exception to others I have seen from that period.