The later guns seem to have much more engraving on them compared to the early guns on a grade to grade comparison. I wonder why Parker would have increased the amount of engraving?

Also need to PS that Dean's short but very accurate treatise on the difficulty of assigning a grade to a particular gun really hits it out of the park on this one - one of the best examples of a "Grade 5 1/2" I've ever seen. As a footnote to validate what we're talking about, when I sold this gun to a high-echelon collector, he told me the reason he wanted it was that it was so significantly different in engraving coverage and execution than the other 4 Grade 5 hammer guns he already owned, it "completed the niche" of that Grade in his collection array.

I thought a teardrop inside the teardrop was the sign of a $250.00 gun.
Absolutely beautiful gun, btw!

Read the article. I think Kevin included the Carter letter in the article. I have done a bunch of Carter research for another Parker. He is one interesting frontier businessman. Imagine what Salt Lake City was like in the 1880s.

Bill, I read the article, very good read, had to have taken awhile to do all that research, for this gun, Thanks Kevin, Gary

That gun is an absolute piece of work. Beautiful wood.

one truly nice gun...charlie

Another great hammer gun Gary! I'm looking forward to reading the article. The hammer guns are the most fascinating of all the Parker's to me.

just beautiful, that's a two finger gun if iv'e ever seen one!

Remarkable 6 Iron "Oxford" barrels, which I added here, with an attribution
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/19406549