Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought Purdey guns were marked “J. Purdey & Sons” just as ‘real’ Parker’s were marked “Parker Bros.”
There were several Belgian makers of cheap guns that would profit from the good name of the Parker gun by marking “Parker”, “T Parker”, “Barker”, etc. knowing full well that they would suffer severely if they infringed on the trademark.

I wonder if this is such a “Purdey”?





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I compared it to another 1859 Purdey and it is correctly marked, simply “Purdey”.

My error... apologies.






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I’ve never regretted a fair warning. What a fantastic group of collectors on this site. I learn more every day. And as a relatively new member, I look forward to meeting others in Kennedyville in September.

I believe that European guns did not have proof marks before 1891, could be wrong but believe this to be true, Gary

Sorry. You're wrong.

Is a Purdey as good as a Parker ? Parkers are pretty nice and stand up to a lot of use.

Are these Purdey shot guns as good as a Parker?

In a similar sense, one might ask:

Is a Bond Street suit as good as one from Men's Warehouse?

Is an Aston Martin as good as a Ford F-150?

Is Shakespeare as good as James Petterson?


Essentially, the comparisons have no basis to begin with. A Purdey and a Parker are both shotguns. End of similarities.

See ! I knew you would know the fine points!

We don’t have Aston Martin cars out here, maybe that’s why I bought a new Ford F-150 a couple years ago, that and it handles mud and snow well , and I can load my bird dogs in it.

There is no Bond Street in town but maybe I can mail order one of their suits.

Our local library carries Shakespeare books.

We are pretty fancy out here in fly over country.

And we have lots of wild birds.