Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Gardner
John,
Not that anyone has to defend Parker, I believe that there were only 800 Crown grades made and these are their top-shelf guns so I guess we really need to compare these to the AAHE and A-1 Special guns.
Cheers,
Jay
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Jay, undoubtedly Crown grades are/were beautifully engraved they were not L.C. Smith's top-shelf guns, in fact they were positioned to compete with Parker Bros. BH guns. During the era when Crown grades were built 1913-1945 they were Smith's fourth from the top offering. Smith's top-of-the-line model was the Deluxe, then the Premier, then the Monogram, then the Crown, followed by the Eagle, Specialty, Trap, Ideal and Field grades.
Even more impressive, in terms of engraving--at least to my eye, were a couple of Smith's offerings prior to 1913, those being the Quality No. 7 and A2 models with stepped lockplates.
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