In Praise of the Flying Turnip
 

The four attached pictures are all G-grade guns with the flying turnips. The first is a 1889 D-2, the second is an 1893, the third (not real clear) is a 1900, and the fourth is a 1915. I've always thought the guns engraved around WW1 have deeper and more detailed engraving. These four generations of G-grades exemplify the different artistic hands who made these guns special.

Great post Ed! I've always wondered who proposed that the "turnips" always be in the same "pose", meaning with the body at that particular angle (some more exaggerated than others) and with those silly little feet scratched there as almost an afterthought.
Examples like the third down remind me of teal dropping nearly to water-level to go screaming by the gunner and they were pictured exactly at the moment they levelled off before touching the water.
There are some truly ugly Grade 2 turnips on Parkers - those engraved during the Anschutz tenure come quickly to mind.

Dean

Ed,
I agree with your observations regarding the deeper and more detailed engraveing. I love D grades from the 1915-1919 era. Thoes mid to late teen's guns just seem to have a little more pronounced engraving.

The Meriden Volatilis Verto
 

Another variant of the species; this from Meriden Fire Arms Co. :)

Model 58

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../303270966.jpg

Model 52

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../306061545.jpg

Later Diamond Grade

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../288540413.jpg

Ok...if I may be enlightened...and venture out here....is the 'flying turnip' a particular duck orientation engraved?

Hi Lee,

Some years back someone on this forum was talking about how bad the Parker engraved birds looked and described them as looking more like flying turnips than birds. I don't remember who coined the term but it seems to have stuck.

Volatilis Verto Bakeri & Smithi
 

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../271046268.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../357141912.jpg

It was none other than Ed Muderlak who was the first I had ever seen use the term "flying turnips".

From The Double Gun Journal Spring 2010 p. 126

The 1904 Meriden City Directory shows John and William Gough as contractors for Parker Brothers. In an article published in the Utica, N.Y. newspaper Aug. 29, 1954 - "William Gough took comissions on special engraving jobs from many parts of the country. There he worked on engravings for Aubrey Guns..."

More Aubrey birds (?) courtesy of a member

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../389914247.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../389914246.jpg

The one sitting seems surprised the other made it off the ground :rotf: