Easton, MD Gun Show November 9 and 10

[Kevin McCormack]

Yes by all means come and see us. The Waterfowl Festival has lots of great exhibits and vendors, and you can never predict what will show up. One year in the tailgate parking lot decoy show at he community center, two "watermen" showed up with what they swore was a documented punt gun from the lower Eastern Shore. Provenance showed real thin when one of the kids coming out of hockey practice on the ice rink at the center showed his dad the wet paint on the mounting trunions as it sat in the back of the pickup. Another year inside at the gun show, a young Iranian man brought in a spectacular 1930s vintage Westley Richards droplock 28 gauge, cased with all accessories for show and tell. The makers' label and accompanying charge cards in the lid were all in Farsi.

[Bill Murphy]

The year that the gold encrusted Westley Richards smallbore showed up, Kevin and I probably had $500 between the two of us in our checking accounts. We never saw that gun again. Also, many years ago, at another Maryland show, a Middle Eastern looking young man walked into the show carrying a cardboard box containing the most elaborately engraved 303 Merkel I had ever seen. The box was the original box for the Merkel. He spied a well worn Damascus 12 gauge Parker on a table manned by a friend. He asked whether he could trade the Merkel for the Parker. Of course the deal went down, the young man explaining that the Merkel was a diplomatic gift to his father and he had no interest in it. At the time, the Merkel was probably worth $4000 and the browned out Parker probably $250.

[Bill Murphy]

Saturday at the Easton Show was very slow with little activity on our three tables. Other vendors told the same story. However, all items I spied as possible take homes were gone very quickly. A great vintage portrait of "hanging bluejays" was something I couldn't have lived without, but it was gone when I went back. A brand new Model 11 Remington 12 gauge for $300 was a great buy and was gone when I went back as were twelve boxes of 3" .410 7 1/2 shot for a great price. My friend John's table of Diamond Grade Prussian Dalys was untouched by human hands by closing time Saturday. I was tempted by an early Model 21 12 gauge for $1000 asking price, but I restrained myself, and no one else seemed to notice it either. On the same table was an NID 20 gauge Ithaca for $300. Both guns were field used but all original and functional. I displayed for sale an early two barrel set 20 gauge Model 21 that Cody lettered to Senator Harry B. Hawes, first president of Ducks Unlimited, and founder of the Jefferson Islands Club, but no one expressed the slightest interest in the gun or the informational cards displayed.