Once again, lots of erroneous information and conclusions in this thread regarding Runge engraving and Parker gun manufacture and assembly re: Meriden and Ilion production. (We had a similar rondele' about a year or so ago on all of this; it would be most useful to revisit that thread to debunk the rumors, innuendo, and outright BS).).
Women having been used as "secret" engravers during the Meriden-Ilion transition is pure hogwash, as is the concept of frames being hardened and colored in Ilion and sent back to Meriden as Brian pointed out. The bone charcoal case coloring process was abandoned by Remington after they recognized that uniformity in the process vs. preparation time and costs could not be reconciled in the end pricing of the guns. The cyanide coloring process was adopted by Remington after repeated attempts by the Storm brothers to instruct Remington craftsmen in the art of bone charcoal coloring had been abandoned. Coincidentally enough, Parker Bros. themselves had begun investigating the cyanide coloring process before the Remington buyout for the very same reasons during the middle years of the depression.
The progression of events leading to the demise of the Parker Gun and to the practice of upgrading guns, especially smallbores, is well known and documented in The Parker Story. The "early" Runge-Del Grego upgrades, begun over 30 years ago now, are most highly sought after. To my knowledge, all of the legitimate R-DG upgrades are signed prominently on the water tables.
Parker Bros. usually prohibited engravers from signing their work, but of course some of the old masters (Gough, etc.) sneaked their signatures in obscure places (e.g., trigger guard bow screw wells, brushy backdrops in game scenes, etc.). Remington pursued this practice of not signing engraving on Parker Guns during production at ilion, but of course allowed it without reservation on their centerfire rifles and shotguns coming our of the Custom Shop.
After his retirement from Remington, Bob Runge engraved hundreds of pistols for private individuals. Like his other signed works, they are very highly sought after today.
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