[QUOTE=...if I come up empty handed I will try to purchase a similar gun made in 1908...
If nothing additional if found, I will probably need advice on the purchase front.[/QUOTE]

Charles,

If you want to buy an honest gun join this organization and watch it daily for the gun you want. That is the only way to see the for-sale forum. And in my opinion since the guns changed little from 1908 on, any year is ok and the higher serial numbers had internal improvements that were unseen to the naked eye. This is the place to get a gun that will be honestly described and priced; and it will keep you from making a big mistake on your first Parker purchase. Just my two cents.

As a retired Museum Curator, establishing the history or provenance of an artifact such as a firearm can be challenging, rewarding, and frustrating. Like many have stated it all begins with a serial number. Little else can be done without it. Even then, the history may simply end with the original shipping information from a manufacturer. With that said, a couple of thoughts:

You mention that it was ordered with no engraving. You also state that you recall a plain, unmarked, grip cap and butt plate. Additionally, you have not sighted or heard of the gun in decades. It is possible that it may not have been a Parker.

It could have actually been a different manufacturer. It could have been an H.D. Folsom import marked C. Parker. Or, it could have been a VH or Trojan grade Parker. Without the serial number or perhaps an image your mission will end.

Maybe a family member has an image. Maybe an image is tucked away in a book or bible? I would start with family members. Sometimes the least likely family member has an image of that family member that you didn't know of or had never seen. Good luck.

One other comment that needs to be addressed is that you state you bought The Serialization book and made a list of all the guns fitting your description in 1908, then quoted a finite number. Someone, I believe Dean, mentioned that generally only high grade guns were listed in the Serialization book. That is a fact, and a lot, maybe the majority, of the lower grade guns are not listed. The serialization book is basically a summation of the existing higher grade guns records, keeping in mind that the records are incomplete and have whole sections missing. If you wnat a closer number of how many possibilities exist, data such as that is contained in The Parker Story.

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Actually Arthur, there is only a section of the serialization book where, for the purposes of the person recording the data, only listed grade 3 and higher…. Not the entire book. His reasons for onitting the lower grades is unknown and can only be guessed at.






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Dean is correct. Lower grade guns were listed in their entirety in the main part of the serialization book, as long as the guns were listed in available stock books. Arthur was mistaken.

I guess I wasincorrect. I thought I understood it butreally didn't. I just know that a lot of the lower gradeguns I try to look up are not there. The point I was trying to make though is still valid, I believe. The OP implied he had made a list of all the low grade guns and was going to try and use that to track guns. There are likely a significant number that are not in the book, maybe a lot more.

That I agree with Art.





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The Serialization Book is made up almost entirely from the entries in the Stock Books this includes all grades both hammer and hammerless. These guns were put into a database. There are a total of 30 Stock Books missing that the PGCA doesn't have records for. Each book has about 300 pages so that's approximately 9,000 guns that couldn't be put into the database used for the Serialization Book.

Before publishing the Sterilization Book, we were given access to the Order Books. It was decided to make a database for the Order Books and to search the Order Books for all the guns grade 3 and above that were missing from the Stock Book database (think Sterilization Book) and add them to the database used for the publication of the Sterilization Book. Can you imagine if all guns below grade 3 were included. Remember that Parker made 242k guns. It was just too much work to include all grades from 0 to 9.

Art, the part of the Serialization Book you refer to with no lower grade guns is one of the Appendices at the end of the book.