Rib legends.

[John Allen]

I have a VH 12ga. #140524 marked "Parker Brothers"

[Dean Romig]

Is it on a standard concave rib or a flat top rib or a ventilated rib? Can you tell if it is roll-stamped or engraved?

Further, does it say "THE PARKER BROTHERS GUN"? With no barrel steel shown as Brian describes?





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[B. Dudley]

I think some of these posters reporting on guns with "brothers" are missing the point.

[edgarspencer]

Here are 89621, upper, and 178135, lower. Both are roll stamped on concave ribs. BBoth guns are VH grade.
Brian, I think the point is to try and determine if there is an age, grade, sn correlation to the limited use of 'Brothers.'

[Dean Romig]

The point, as I see it, is to discover what the roll die at Turnbull's was used for or on.





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[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

The point, as I see it, is to discover what the roll die at Turnbull's was used for or on.

I think it's "intended" use will remain highly speculative, in as much, as no one has ever seen it so used, on a top rib or anywhere else.

Unless Brian can get Doug to further enlighten us on the die's origin, and it's creator's intention, Finding some correlation in the use of the full spelling of Brothers, with respect to a time period, or grade use, may turn out to be the only thing that might lend some idea of it's intended use. If Brian could get Doug to let him take the die, examine it's font and compare it to known fonts used on top ribs, it maight at least give some clue. It may have just been a customer's special order request, used on one gun. I'm not holding my breath for a definitive answer, and think it will go down as one more of many unexplained Parker marking anomalies.

[Dean Romig]

I can agree with all of that Edgar, with the exception that it may have been used on just one gun... Or just twenty, or fifty guns. We know that Parker Bros. would simply engrave the ribs of just a small number of Parkers with special or unusual barrels or even just special ribs. Barrels with more standardized features would have been marked with a roll die - but here we have a roll die that may never have been used on more than a small handful of ribs. And so, the question remains, what was the purpose of this particular roll die?





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[edgarspencer]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

I can agree with all of that Edgar, with the exception that it may have been used on just one gun...

I believe you're only disagreeing with me because you're an ornery cuss who just likes to wind me up. It was entirely speculative that it was used on one gun, just as it is equally speculative it was used on two, ten or fifty. Until someone produces one, I think it's much closer to none than 50.

During the absence of more important things, I examined the above two "Brothers" guns and despite being nearly 90,000 guns apart, I would feel confident in saying both ribs were impressed by the very same roll die. Austin and John's guns fall in between my two. I am sure they rolled up a mess of ribs at once, but can't guess whether the the Brothers were separated from the Bros.

Does anyone have a guess as to the life of the Meriden roll dies, i.e. how many ribs could be impressed before it was determined to be worn out (or as we have occasionally seen, broken)?

[edgarspencer]

I think Double O nailed it.

[Ralph English]

In 2007, I purchased an A1S Parker Reproduction "In the white" from Tony Galazan. Tony was kind and allowed me to buy the sample gun that he used in his advertisements.

I live a "stones throw" from a world class engraver named Lisa Tomlin. She designed the engraving for this gun in a traditional Parker style with SPRING GOBBLER SEASON IN VIRGINIA as the theme in the engraved scenes. As always, Lisa did a masterful job which involved 200 hours of work ( 2barrel set, 20 ga, english grip, sst and a beavertail foearm ).

I had Turnbull do the metal work and case color. I also requested that Doug take the existing stamp off the top barrel rib inscription and replace it with THE PARKER GUN designed stamp. The stamp was designed with Parker "arrows" on both sides.

Brian, I expect that stamp is what you saw at Doug's shop.

I hope I did not get in trouble!!