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Work Order Tag Examples
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I'm going to post pictures of some of the interesting WOT's. The real small tags are from the early days at Parker Bros. and they are generally from the 1870's. The blue colored tags and the large tan tags, for the most part are from the 1920's and 1930's so they can't be referenced to the original Order Books since the Order Books ended in 1919.
Note that the second smallest tag is an 8 bore gun from 1877. Many of these small tags are very dirty and many can't be read. Also note that the pattern info is not there, just the generic chokes such as Full/Full. The first picture is of the 4 types of tags we have. |
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Quite a few of the tags have additional information on the back of the tag, the large tag can contain a lot of handwritten information. This example if from the 1930's so there is no Order Book information to match to the tag. The Stock Book usually will not mention things other than the common options such as chamber length, vent rib, single trigger, and beavertail for-end. In this example the butt treatment was a Hawkins pad. If we had the Order Book for this gun, it would have shown a recoil pad was ordered. The Stock Book never mentions butt treatment so the assumption would be that the recoil pad was added and the skeleton butt removed. I guess if the Hawkins pad was still on, you may be able to guess that the pad was original if it matches the LOP.
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That is wonderful "stuff!" Thanks, Chuck, for posting.
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Very interesting stuff Chuck. Thank you!
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Interesting selection of WOT's Chuck. If I am reading these correctly I see a 32" GHE 20 ga and a 32" DHE 12 ga with a vent rib. Note the "RUSH" on the bottom of the WOT for the DHE ,makes me wonder who that one was for and also where these guns are now.
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Both tags have "Rush" on them. The one one on the GHE is a little harder to locate. :)
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I also note the number of times I see RUSH on the Fox order cards that are posted on their site. It's like those of us who want our guns back pronto after dropping them off at the gunsmith for work...or how we tap our toe waiting for a gun to be shipped from an auction.
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DHE Trap
Look at that length on the DHE 12 gauge at 15-1/8''. He must have been a BIG boy.
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How many Work Order Tags?
I could count the items in the list, but have not. It is easier to just ask: How many total WOTs were found and made it into the PGCA archives?
How many are still available at this time (an approximation is good)? One of mine was on the list and I am very pleased to get the tag that I expect it carried through the factory. Having a WOT paired with its gun may be one of the rarest pieces of Parker Bros. ephemera that can be collected. Has the information on the tags been recorded for future reference and study? If not, I will be glad to send a copy of my tag for the sake of research. |
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Here's my only WOT, writing on back but can't make it out.
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James, it reads "marked 3-5 weighs 3-4. Talking about barrel weight. Many tags, especially the early small tags list the weight. What is your struck and unstruck barrel weight?
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Thanks Chuck, sorry can't give you that info ,the gun was sent back for new or extra barrel and forearm. The barrel and forearm I have are marked " 2 " with a Remington code of " DE3 " sept. 1936. The barrel I have is marked 3 -7 & weight is 3lb 1.1 oz .The barrel I have is 30" like the original.
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Many of the real small tags (as seen in the first picture) are either so dirty or faded that the S/N can't be made out but I'd guess there are a few hundred of these so add these to the total tags. Since all searches in the spreadsheet are by S/N and nothing else, they are useless except if the Order # can be read on the bottom of the tag and we have the Order Book that has that Order #, then I can find the S/N for that tag. Lots of work to do this!!! How many are still available? Most are. I probably only get requests for WOT's less than 5 or 10 per year. Not all WOT's have comments on the back of the tag. The chance is better on the higher grades. The WOT's have not been researched or collated, I don't know how much good it would do. If I find a WOT is available when requesting a research letter, I let that person know it's available and I also include any additional information on the WOT not found in the Order or Stock book in the research letter. |
I wonder if a shop that specializes in cleaning paintings and historic documents could clean some of these dirty tags...?
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There is different penmanship on the tags. Cursive writing, printing, and different colored ink. Did the WOT stay with the gun during the whole assembly process and then marked after each inspection along assembly process? I'm sure that additional notes were probably added when it finally arrived at the dealer.
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Here is a picture of how the Work Order Tags are stored. It's easy to find tags in the 2 large binders, the database will tell me which book and page number to go to. The database will tell me which smaller binder to look in but there is no page number so I have to go through all the pages. Of course it's usually in one of the last pages! The tags in the zip lock baggies will be in the database if the S/N can be read. I've not had anyone order a small tag. More on the small tags in my next post.
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I took a picture of 8 of the real old tags from the yellow zip lock bag in the previous post. These tags are extremely fragile, they are hard and can break real easily. As you can see, they are very dirty and most of the information was written in pencil and faded over time. Note that you can read some of the information on the back of the tags.
I think I may start to identify those tags that the S/N can't be read but the order # can be read found at the bottom of the tag. If we have the Order Book with that Order # in it, I can match the info on the tag with the Order Book entry and I'll know the S/N. This would be a real big and time consuming project but interesting to do. We'll see. |
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I can do it. I'm thinking of doing a few a day. I just wonder if members (PGCA members only) would want to pay $100 or more for one of these small fragile tags?
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When the PGCA Research Committee was studying the tags and trying to categorize them, lo and behold, I found the work tag for one of my Parkers. Apparently, my gun was the first to be paired with a work tag. The weird thing is that the tags were spread out on a table and no one suspected that we would find anything of value to our own collections. My "tag of interest" was serial number 234,481. Maybe our historian will post a picture of that work tag.
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I realized about eight years ago that I have a gun that matches a WOT by serial number.
It is a DHE 20ga. I haven't ever ordered the WOT because I always have some reason to believe that the $200 needs to be used elsewhere and I assume the tag will always be there until I decide to order it. I bet I'm not the only one that feels that way. Heck, I could order letters on five of my other Parkers for that amount. And why should someone with a DH 12 have to pay the same for a WOT as someone else with a AAE or an A1 Special if there were WOT's available for them? I feel the jump in price should have started with the C grade since it was considered the first of the high grade guns and the price should scale upward by grade from there. Sorry for going on a mini rant. :rolleyes: |
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That's the positive attitude I always expect from PGCA higher ups. Isn't there something in our "charter" about promoting the study and history of our Parkers? OH CRAP, I've asked that question before. Cancel that. I've already seen the tag. I thought some of our readers would enjoy it.
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I know the WOTs are quite rare and available for only about 1/2 of 1% of the Parkers made. I’ll break down one of these days and order it. I looked again at the WOT info and see now that the B and higher grades do have a higher cost on the tags. I didn’t remember that from 8 years ago. |
I'm just glad they don't have a sliding price scale for PGCA letters. I would like to know the reasoning behind charging on the sliding scale for one and not the other. There is much more work for Chuck to research and write a letter than there is for putting a work tag in an envelope. By the way, Chuck, I am very grateful to have you as our historian.
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