Very Cool Parker History
 

I received an email from Chuck in regards to my letter for a recently acquired Parker. He said my letter was on the way and recommended a call to Griffin & Howe for further details. Thanks so much for the advice Chuck!
Well I got off the phone with Bob Beach just a little while ago and he had some pretty cool info. My gun was originally purchased in 1927 by one Mrs. Vincent Astor! Her husband being the son of John Jacob Astor IV who was lost on the Titanic. Her name was Helen Dinsmore Huntington. They were married for 26 years.
She had the gun for 6 months and took it back to Von Lengerke & Detmold. After that it was purchased again from a Mr. Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen in 1929. I didn't know the name before today but apparently he was very well known in the NJ area. After finding out this info this one may have to stick around a little while:)

That sounds like a keeper. Congratulations!

Mike, did I miss an earlier post? What grade parker did you acquire, and of course we would all love to see pictures.

It was a 28 ga VHE 00 frame that I was going to sell but have decided to hold on to for a little while:):):)

WOW!!!

I haven't taken good pictures yet. I had originally purchased this gun to resale and broke some forum rules by obtaining information here for that,my fault. So I really don't know if I am now allowed to post pics or not. I'm not looking for any info,just sharing a cool gun with history:)

I have these.You can tell its a solid 40% but probably no better.

Mike, luck was with you. That gun looks well used but factory original as long as the barrels are the correct length. My advice is leave it as is, don't do anything to it other than keep the bores clean and oiled and wipe down the metal with an oily rag.

Can you take pictures of the inside of the case? Is their an inscription on the case lid?

Barrels are 26" full and correct. Case is inscribed R.Mc.D. Don't know how far the line this owner was but case looks original and somewhere down the line someone engraved it.

mighty nice....charlie

Got a few more pictures.

Few more.

What a great gun!

That was an excellent purchase Mike - you couldn't have done better and I agree with Chuck - don't do anything to it as far as refinishing it. It is a great gun and well cared for.

Yeah. I'm not touching it. This gun was shot a lot and someone really enjoyed it. Was it supposed to have a patent date beside the release tab on the forearm? If so ,its pretty much worn off as is most of the checkering. Like I said, this gun was ENJOYED!

The forend latch patent date was eliminated from that location long before your gun was produced.

Cool. I was sorta worried. Once I get the paperwork I gotta send this one off for an appraisal. To hard, with the extra info, to determine a value.

Mike your gun has an interesting past. Please release the top lever after disassembling the gun and allow it to return gently to center otherwise you are liable to break the top lever. With thumb on side of top lever depress metal tab in bottom rear of receiver water table with a tool. Voila you will have saved damaging your gun.
Erick

Thanks man. Done. I have some pretty nice guns(colts,Winchesters) that are valuable,over the 10k number, but have never had a Parker other than an old trojan. It's hard to look at a gun like this and see any crazy value or worry about breaking somethinsomething like that which would kill any value it does have I assume. Seems pretty crazy.

That gun has got to have some stories to tell. It has most definitely seen a lot of woods and likely killed a lot of birds. Nice gun.

Thanks. The guy I bought it from knew his grandfather got the gun before WW2 but couldn't figure out exactly from who or where. His grandfather worked at Rice Hope Plantation here in Moncks Corner. After getting the history from G&H we know that the Senator from NJ owned Rice Hope in the 30s. I gave him that info today and he seemed happy.

Got my letter today. Thanks so much Chuck for the super fast turnaround and the heads up to call Bob! Gun letters as 100% righteous. At 5lbs 2 oz I can see why people LOVED to carry these when searching for birds!

Anyone know which name caries a bigger weight up north? Astor of Frelinghuysen? I've actually been trying to find descendents of either with no luck yet. If there were a shotgun out there that my grandfather or grandmother had then I would want to know. But I guess when you talk about families of that magnitude they may already have a room full:)

Mike:

If I may put my 2 cents into the pile----------I agree, the gun should be "as is", do not do anything , other than keeping it in the same condition by oiling the metal with a light coat . I would have Kevin McCormack of Oakton,VA reline the inside felt, replace the straps, replace the carrying handle, and rejuvenate the outside leather of the case . It would change the entire presentation of the gun & case.

With all due respect, I would not have that case relined. There is no good reason to change this aspect of originality. A new handle and security straps are needed however. With patina to match the case.

I would also make it a practice to attach the forearm to the barrels rather than have it bash around loose atop the wrist and top lever of the gun.

And finally, "Astor" is the hands down preferred social surname in the NE. If one has a choice that is.

I'll be honest. I don't think anything is going to be done other that a little oil. I like the history of it so I'm gonna leave it as found:)

I had contacted Mr. Delgrego when I was thinking about a restoration and he said guys were paying 5k for a OO VHE 28 without wood if they could find it??? Is that the case? How many of these were produced?

Possibly... for one in high condition otherwise.

Let's see. You own a VHE 28 on a 00 frame that was originally purchased by the daughter-in-law of John Jacob Astor. Then owned by another luminary of New England's industrial history.

It's in darn good condition for its age. It's in what is most likely its original case, which is also in darn good condition for its age.

My bet is that if you take this gun and its provenance to an auction house like Cowan's you'll end up getting a lot more than 5K for it. Just my opinion...

Man you can tell that last post was typed on a "smart" phone.:) What I was trying to say was that I agree with the value on this gun. However, I'm not used to people buying stuff and paying that kind of money just to restore it. Don't see that a lot with Winchesters.

is it correct for there to be case color under the forarm on metal portion? the rest of the gun is blue so I just wondered.

While it is difficult to tell from your photos, it is quite possible that you are mistaking the remains of the gun's colour case for "blue." It tends to fade that way...

If this is indeed the "case", the unexposed case colours are correct.

Aagghhh! Freeakin smartphones and there auto correct demons!
Pretty sure the gun is blue. I assumed that it would have been the standard by this time in production. However, I have never seen a blued forearm underneath.

Mr. Corley:
You have reached the stage of endless speculation. You're best bet with this gun is to take it to a responsible double gun professional for appraisal. It is the only way you will know for sure what its relative condition is, its state of originality, general value, etc.

This depends greatly on your location in the country. Or where you are willing to transport the gun.

Any recommendations in the Charleston,SC area?

If you can wait, why not bring it up to the Spring Southern SxS in the Sanford, NC area. The Parker Collectors will be there as well as a host of experts from around the nation. Just Google Deep River Sporting Clays for all the details.

Mike,
Jim Kelly at Darlington Gun Works. He is the best. Little bit of a drive from Charleston, but not bad.(we go all the time).

Once the letter gets here I'll take it to Jim. I've been in the shop before. I knew he was a great smith but didn't know he was the guy for appraisals.

I was looking through the Parker identification book today. I noticed that my gun the two before it were all three identical. You see this quite often with 12 gauges but no 3 in a row 28 gauges anywhere else that I saw. The 28 gauges are speckled throughout at best. Since Miss Astor took this gun back after a short time I wonder if she bought it to go shooting with friends as a women's club type thing and just never got around to it. If so I wonder if two of her other friends also ordered 28 gauges to be manufactured?

No disrespect intended, but it seemed a bit unusual to me that Ms. Astor would purchase a V Grade Parker. The Astor family could buy the whole Parker company with pocket change. Perhaps her intent was to "trade up"?

But it 's all speculation unless you do the research...