English made Parkers

[Milton C Starr]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

they show up here fairly often

and i do wish people would stop calling them "knock offs" since the English Parker family started making guns a hundred years before the Parker Bros. started -

the ones we mostly see are middle grade Birmingham proofed guns - there are Belgium clunkers - but since they usually say Parker not Parker Brothers, i bet they are meant to steal a share of the inexpensive British export market, otherwise that class of Belgium makers would have added brothers to the name to confuse - just like they did with the variations of the Westley Richards name

Were the belgium guns any good for just say field use ?
Ive been reading about Joseph Manton recently and was finding conflicting information regarding the Belgium guns with the Manton name on them .

I have never seen the English Parkers you speak of when I said knock offs I was referring to all the Belgium guns that use similar names to capitalize on the likeness of the well known names .

[Drew Hause]

“Parkers” made in Belgium including Parker-Smith-Williams, T. Parker, Thomas Parker (possibly by Pieper), and C. Parker & Co.,
T. Parker New York were made by Crescent,
E.D. Parker shotguns with English proofmarks were listed in the 1895 Clabrough & Golcher catalog,
William Parker was a gunmaker from 1790 until 1840 and one of the forerunners of Parker, Field & Sons, High Holborn, London, 1841-1876,
The lowest grade guns marketed by P. Webley were sold under the name of Thomas Parker, London c. 1900-1920