I may have missed it... Did we ever find out for sure what the crude stamped letters of F.B. Potts, 717, and 3 stars on the frame-bottom truly represented???

Best, CSL
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I'm not the new owner of this gun (sold at Julia's last spring) but I envy the lucky person who bought it. I handled this gun for quite some time at the preview, and have to say, it's getting a bit of bad press here.
As the recent thread on 'soul' is fresh in my mind, I would say this gun had been imbued with a lot of it. The stamping was not offensive, but, on the contrary, very intriguing. Dean didn't pipe up re the history of Potts, and the Military, so perhaps it was someone else who made the connection.
That gun would be made very welcome in my rack.

I also found the gun to be very interesting and unique, just wanted to know if anyone had discovered the significance or identity of the person named on the bottom... The gun oozes early 1900's shooting history, and I'm sure there is a great story surrounding Parker #175916.

My research regarding the relationship between Parker Bros, Dupont Powder, Louis Parker, Jack Fanning, Try-Guns, Hank Stevens and the small-bores used at the Atlantic City shooting school, continues as a work in progress... Always something new to be found...

Best, CSL
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The only thing I was able to learn from a few quick Internet searches about the name stamped there was a reference to a "Capt. F. B. Potts" paying $19.00 in dues to the Society in a document containing hundreds of names of military people, all paying some amount of dues money. The title of the document was "Recorded Procedures of the Society of the Army of Tennessee" and dated 1879. It could be deduced that Capt. F.B. Potts may have been around twenty years old in 1879 and in 1922 or so would have been around sixty-five or so and may well have risen to the rank of Lieutenant General by then. Just a WAG on my part but it is quite plausible.

Further examination in this same document yields the name of Brevit Major General B.F. Potts of Helena, MT. Probably nothing to do with the subject of the name stamped on the gun.




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