Invincibles
 

I find the provenance/history of high grade American doubles fascinating. Anyone know which issues of DGJ, Parker Pages or these forums discuss the rediscovery, provenance of the 3 Invincibles?

I looked in the Parker Pages index and there are 4 articles that reference the invincible. You can go to the index and do a simple search to find them. FYI - My browser allows searching for text on a page if I press the ctrl and f keys simultaneously, then enter invincible in the text box that pops up; yours probably has the same function.

Some of the most detailed descriitions of the repair and restoration of the "lost" Invincible (the one owned by publisher Henry Lyman) are contained in the Butterfield's Auction description of the gun as it was presented for sale, and the issue of Shooting Sportsman magazine just prior to the sale, within which the true story of the broken stock and subsequent pathway of repair and restoration are enumerated. These two brief vignettes dispel forever all but a wisp of the wind, smoke, and outright BS connected with the "last" of these fabulous guns.

In Parker Pages volume 8, issue 6, 2001 the article written by Roger Lake does a nice job documenting the last invincible to go on the auction block. Roger worked at the auction house and had lots of detail in his article. A good read!

Dietrich Apel wrote quite an interesting article on #200,000, which he had much to do with. I can't remember where the article appeared.

Shooting Sportsman Volume XII Issue V, September/October 2000, has a great article by Roger Lake called "The 'Lost' Invincible". It tells the full story of #233565, the gun and its restoration with pictures, copies of correspondence between Dr .Lyman and Parker Bros., the original work order and even copies of the hanging tags and detail of the restoration by Del Grego. Interesting, they expected the gun to sell for $150 to $200,000 at auction.

I was in error when I indicated Dietrich Apel wrote an article on #200,000. His article and knowledge is of the 16 gauge Invincible. Some day, one of our posters may write the story of #200,000 and its whereabouts for so many years when it was "lost".

Bill :

I do not know if this will help, but upon the death of Austin Hogan , Pam Hogan gave me two pictures of Invincible S/N 230329 that Dietrich Apel had given Austin. There was a note attached to the back of the photos that stated that this Invincible was purchased by a person named George Ford from Paul Jaeger in Jenkintown, PA.

After the purchase Mr. Ford found out the value of the gun and purchased Christmas presents for both Dietrich and Paul . A comprehensive story was written by Austin and appeared in the PGCA Journal vol. 15 spring 2008.

Allan

The story of Invincible 230329 was written up by Dick Baldwin in the May 1971 issue of Guns & Ammo. I first saw that gun when it was displayed, I think by Gary Herman, at the 1970 NRA convention.

How did Robt Petersen manage to get a hold of all 3 ?