Maybe it's a dead-end but, call it dumb luck, call it a WAG, or call it clairvoyance but about 12-15 years ago someone came on the forum here talking about a beat up 20 gauge Damascus DH with a horrible 1 1/2" wood extension on the butt from another gun, not even a Parker, and hand-painted with a heavy stained shellac and with crud all over but with an oval with the initials TP saying that family history said it had belonged to someone like a colonel in the army but couldn't remember the name but the initials were TP.
For whatever reason I threw out the possibility of it being Admiral Thomas Perry of the US Navy. My suggestion was poo-pooed but I ordered a letter from Mark Conrad (research chairman at the time) and the truth came out. I made an offer and the gun, having had a leather covered pad installed and re-checkered and wood refinished, it is now part of my collection...
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"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."
George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic.
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