You have a treasure that should only be handled by an esteemed auction house like RIA, Morphy's, Bonham & Butterfield's, or Amoskeag - any of which draw the elite among gun collectors and will procure for you the very highest bids possible for such an important artifact in the world of collectible antique firearms.... You would be ill-advised to do otherwise!





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Thank you for that info. I have been in touch with Josh Lowensteiner from Morphy's and he is going to be on the west coast in early May to look at the gun and discuss further my options.
Thanks,
John

Would love to see pictures and a copy of the letter.

Aurthur du Bray’s 28 gauge BHE #97426
 

I owned #97426 a BHE 28 Gauge ..... during the time The Parker Story was being written...

I sent photographs to be published in the book

However since the gun was an exceedingly early 28 gauge
..straight grip
... Titanic Fluid Steel barrels #97426 1901?

and was equipped with
Automatic ejectors....

The photographs of the gun were returned to me unpublished
As at the time, the order books for that year had not yet been discovered
And the authors of the Parker Story were unable to verify the guns originality
....My guess is it was suspect because it was too early to be a 28 gauge

It seems likely to me, that upon the return of that salesmans sample 28 Guage by Mr. du Bray to the Parker Factory

The ejectors were likely added by the factory or had actually, in fact- been original to the gun, as this is one of the first 28 gauge fluid steel guns ever built

And it was clearly intended to be shown with all the “modern amenities” as it had been Mr. du Bray’s sales tool....

To add further interest, I acquired the gun in the late 1980s
....out of the Cincinnati Ohio area

Sadly, I no longer own the gun, however, I have some very nice digital photographs which I will hope to find and upload in the next week or so...

The engraving is a very unique and gorgeous deep relief

...almost in the expression of the first A1 special

Kevin, Welcome to the PGCA forum.

We’re so pleased that you chose to share this information with us and we eagerly await your pictures.

Have you since sent for a research letter on 97426 ?





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I think my research shows 97428 to be one of the first 28 gauges. The research material was published in the Parker Pages a few years back and discussed on this forum. My research did not include 97,426.

Any idea where 97426 resides these days?

:corn:

Yes; my notes from researching "Grandma's 28" (GH Damascus 28 ga.) show 94373 as the first 28 ga. made, appearing in the Order Books (Stock Book for that SN missing so production date is not exact but would predate January 1900). Interestingly enough, the first half dozen 28s were Grade 3 and Grade 5 guns.

I sure would like to see an early Grade 5 28

Me too Mills!