Babe Ruth's Parker?

[Kevin McCormack]

Like a lot of other "Famously Owned Parkers", it was but an interesting aside to its original owner. They didn't coddle and preserve it for future collecting value for guys like us, who dwell on either its art form or mechanical sophistication and durability. For many former original owners, they took as good a care of it as they did their Model 12 Winchesters, Remington Model 32s, and/or their A.H. Fox model BEs. E.G., "A a gun is a gun is a gun." Little did they know we would be waiting in the wings to deify their former ownerships, nor much care where they went or who wound up with them. We are very lucky to have salvaged what we've found over the years. Consider the original (but "rode hard and put away wet") condition of the great Max Fleischmann A-1 Special 20 ga. 2-bbl. set before "restoration." Had to be one of the greatest and hardest hunted Parkers of all time. To this day I remain thankful that I saw it in all its glory prior to being put in "new gun condition."