A day late and a dollar short
 

Angel,

If you had been around between 1920 and 1922 you could have bought this same Parker at Von Lengerke & Detmold (#173979) as a used gun for $275. It was sold three times during that period. The sale recorded in the photo below shows that it was sold as a consigned shotgun in 1921. It came in from J.A. Sloan who wanted to net $225 from the sale. The parker was sold to Gus Diderrich who was a chef for Alice Vanderbilt and, later, for Peter A.B. Widener, a very wealthy Philadelphian. Gus Didderich was one of the most frequent buyers of very high end firearms (Purdey, Boss, H&H, Parker, etc) between 1910 and 1930. He must have been a darn good cook. But to keep things in perspective, $275 would likely have bought you a new Ford at that time.

http://pic80.picturetrail.com/VOL213.../399169133.jpg

Compliments of Griffin & Howe

Bob Beach
Records Archivist

Bob, thanks for that bit of history, that's real neat. I'm only 89 years too late.

Mr. Beach, was that the Sloan from Sloan's Sporting Goods up the street? I take it that maybe Sloan's didn't deal in used guns? Sloan's sold some wonderful new guns but I don't know about the used ones. I once lettered a Parker gun from Sloan's that was sold to Annie Laurie Crawford, a serious shooter who once inherited something like 31 large, only one of her sources of income. Bill Murphy

That gun was obviously ruined by some unthinking boob replacing the stock.
(Let's call that a small jab at the "purists" amongst us.)

I agree with the previous poster that some modifications of original guns don't seem to affect the value. However, Mr. M., try to sell a restocked VHE or DHE for the big buck. It all depends on the individual gun. We don't object to your jab. It is a good comment on our hobby. I have a clue that this Murphy fellow may be "one of us". Time will tell.

Bill,
I'm probably the guy who would buy that restocked VHE if it was restocked with a nice piece of walnut with a 2 1/4" DAH and 1/4 cast off, instead of the beat up stock with the 3" drop that it probably had. Only point I'm making is that sometimes a refurbishment or rebuild is the best thing a particular shotgun can have happen to it.
I also appreciate quality firearms that have been reasonably cared for and show their "history" and life story in their patina and scars. I've got both and i wouldn't necessarily want to be refurbished. :)

It is indeed a fine and beautiful Parker and to some, the replacement stock (looks to me like Del Grego's stockwork) wouldn't be a problem but to others would be a 'deal breaker'.
The eventual sell price (which would allow for the price of a restock by a contemporary artist in the field) would be the determining factor to the gun ever ending up in certain collector's safes...

It seems an awful lot of high end Parkers on the market have been restocked, from this gun to the Czar's gun.

At $30K, if the gun were still wearing its original wood, I'd be having a sit down talk with my wife. The kind where we openly talk about our feelings. Like, "I feel like buying another Parker - go get the big checkbook." With the restock, to a PG no less, I won't.

I did just that last night ! You know what I was told, NO GUN IS WORTH 30K. Oh well

I tend to agree with her.