Another strange and terrifying gun - they seem to be coming out of the woodworks these days! You can call Del Gregos and ask if they will look at pictures, but I'm certain they would not commit to identifying the engraver. Without a signature, spending big bucks on a highly-engraved gun is dicey at best. Absent a PGCA letter and a little detective work in the Stock and Order books (e.g., who worked on what at the time the gun was built), there is virtually nothing certain about who engraved a particular gun. Even with all the collaborative (but circumstantial) evidence put forth in the latest Parker Pages' article, "An Ulrich Engraved Parker", the direct connection between Ulrich "visiting the Parker factory at Meriden" on a periodic "walk-in" basis to engrave a relative's gun is ephemeral at best and, at worst, sheer fantasy.
It reminds me of the long-held belief that Peter Johnson, author of the first book on Parker Guns (The Parker Gun), actually travelled to Meriden CT. to interview still-living employees of the original gun works. The simple reality of fact was that ALL of Johnson's correspondence with then-living Parker Bros. employees consisted of appoximately a dozen hand-written letters. The rest of his draft material was garnered from advertisements, shoot results from sporting magazines, word of mouth, visits with gun dealers aroung Richmond and Petersburg VA, Washington DC, and Baltimore. So far as his ever having visited Meriden for sit-downs with old Parker employees, he told Ed Muderlak in his wonderful interview, " I might have ridden through there on a train a time or two." Investigation over....
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05-06-2012, 02:05 PM
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