I will be at the pre view at Julia's Sunday afternoon, and at the auction Monday. I hope to see a few of you there and maybe have a lobster together.
I think this may be a landmark event in sporting arms collecting. It seems that "factory originality" has trumped association with a distinguished shooter or owner with respect to the collectability of sporting arms. There are two notable Parker exceptions. The Czar gun, and "Burt's gun" sold for approximatly 6 times the amount they would have brought as wood and iron, without a story. The provenance of the Czar gun was near impeccable; a number of entries in the order books, a letter from Mr Parker, the original hang tags, and single family ownership far outweighed a new stock. Burt's Gun provenance is even better; Burt handed it to young Bill Tappley who hunted it and wrote of it for 60 years, before passing it on just before his death. There is some pretty good observational support for the provenance of collectability of these two guns; every one of Julia's telephone bidder's representatives was on their feet when the Czar gun lot was called; and I was able to count nine individual bidders chasing Burt's gun at the Cobbs.
It is currently assessed that Nash Buckingham's association with a Super Fox will cause that gun to be sold at 10 to 20 times the amount it would bring without the association. I will judge its provenance and collectability from the number of bidders on the phone, and the number in the gallery fidgeting with bidders cards when the lot is called.
Parker Pages would do an article, or series, on Provenance if sufficient inputs are recieved . We would really like to be able to assess current feelings on provenance of sporting arms and Parkers in particular.
You can post your thoughts here, or e mail them to me at
austin.w.hogan@valley.net
Thanks, Austin