Waste of time, or....?
I have a Parker lifter hammer that my father found in the attic of a house he bought, probably in the late 1940's or early 1950's. It was/is in terrible shape. In the late 50's, he had the firing pins cut off, the front section of the top rib, which had come loose, soldered back in place, put adhesive tape around the cracked stock near the block, and gave it to me to play with. For some reason, probably sentimental, I kept it around, though we thought that it probably was ready for the junk pile. As I matured and learned that it was a Parker and the value of them, I always felt sick that someone had so poorly treated the gun, but considering its condition, didn't spend any time thinking about it. Later, my sons played with it in learning about guns. Sometimes in the field or drinks after, I would lament its fate, but it was discussed like you would a dead relative--a sad loss, but over with.
Then, today, at a hunting preserve training my dog, sitting around afterwards, talk turned to the Parker that the trainer had, and the L.C. Smith another hunter had. As usual, I raised my lament. Surprisingly, the hunter stopped me and said that maybe I should check with Turnbull Restorations, that they can do amazing things. I thought that might be very unlikely, but I came home to look at their website. That got me thinking at least, maybe I can figure out the model and age of the gun, if nothing else for curiosity's sake. That led me to this site, and a lot of looking at resources here.
Turns out that SN 15313 was shown in your SN list as manufactured in 1879 (although there appears to be engraving on the forearm release that looks like "TD MAR 25, 1878" . It is apparently a model U with Damascus barrels and a straight English stock. Aside from the stock, it looks like the Grade 2 section link to pictures of lifter hammer guns, which shows a Grade U gun.
So, I am wondering about where a U model fits into the scheme of grades. I don't find it specifically listed on the grade description page, though it shows up in pictures linked from the Grade 2 section. Is there any thing distinguishing it from Grade 2, or other grades?
Finally, after dismissing the gun all these years, the idea of some kind of restoration is intriguing. I seriously doubt it could be restored to significant value, but an expert might be able to make it an attractive display for, say, over a mantle. Maybe after all it has been through, it deserves some love for being a survivor. Does anyone know anything about Turnbull Restoration?
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03-24-2021, 10:38 AM
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