Very Early Redesigned Forend Latch?

[Dean Romig]

It would certainly be easy enough to replace the keyed loop with the later loop for the Deeley and Edge style of forend latch.

[Researcher]

Just because a forearm has a lever in it doesn't make it a Deeley & Edge.

The Charles King designed and patented Parker Bros. forearm latch with its little lever actuated tilting block which engages the lug on the barrels is not a Deeley & Edge. U.S. use of the 1873 patented Deeley & Edge forearm latch was licensed to E. Remington & Sons on April 24, 1879. Likewise, the lever latch in the forearms of the Colt 1883 and the American Arms Co. Whitmore designed hammerless double were not Deeley & Edge.

Ansley Fox copied the King-designed lever-actuated tilting block forearm latch on his Parker Bros. look-alike Philadelphia Arms Co. gun, but later used the Deeley & Edge opposing hooks on his A.H. Fox Gun Co. gun.

FWIW page 101 of The Parker Story says the first gun with the King patented latch was 11631, but the keyed forearm was still used into 1880 on 16222.