[QUOTE=ed good;125319]is it true that runge was darth vader's other son?
Not exactly - the Bob Runge pertinent to this thread is Robert Phoenix Runge, son of Parker Bros. master engraver Robert Rudolph Runge, who joined Parker Bros. in Meriden in 1911. A master of deep-tendril cutaway scroll, the fabulous A's, AA's, and A-1 Specials of the post-WW I era all show his hand as well as those of Fred Aschutz, William Leidtke and other Parker Bros. masters.
Having been employed as an apprentice engraver to his father on July 17, 1934, approximately one month after Parker was purchased by Remington, it is highly unlikely that "our" Bob engraved anything but screw heads and diamond-dot barrel band borders by the time the GHE/VHE gun featured in this thread was made c. 1935.
On the other hand, odd-out, one-off style of the birds engraved on this gun, along with the overly-wide circular border around the floorplate scene suggests that it could indeed have been the product of a fledgling apprentice - Robert Phoenix Runge's first engraved gun?
So far as the "VH-GH" conundrum goes - clearly a re-barreled gun for whatever the reason.
|