Early Lifter Motifs

[Jeffrey H. Smith]

Many of you have seen my Parker $100 Grade Lifter on various posts before. Hopefully I wont be boring all of you with yet another picture. With no Order Book info or deep family history for my gun, I have little to personalize the gun with historically. It has been speculated that my gun may have been engraved by Jacob Glahn. So Mr. Glahn has become the most notable historic aspect of my gun. I often wonder what prompted him to engrave the gun as he did. Was it specially ordered or did Mr. Glahn just use his personal creative talents to adorn my gun as he did? I'll likely never know, but find it of interest to try to unlock some of the mystery.

The attached photo shows the rearward portion of the sidelock, I'm interested in the 3 adornments or motifs from just below the hammer to the back corner of the lock plate. Just below the hammer is a motif I think is called either SUNRAY or SUNBURST. The originator of this motif may be credited to Louis Nimschke, can any one verify? Moving rearward we next see that "Bouncing Ribbon" type border. I've seen no other specific reference to this, nor have I seen it on any other Parker gun. Has anyone else seen this border motif? Maybe on an LC Smith from Glahn after he moved on, or perhaps by Nimschke on something other than a Parker? Lastly, in the rear corner of the plate is a FLORAL motif. Again I have not seen this widely used on other Parkers, though I do recall seeing a similar one on at least one other Parker. Please share gun photos of similar or other unique, less common motifs of interest.

I'm wondering to what extent Mr. Glahn was influenced by Nimschke, I'm pretty sure they were fairly close in age and both German. Nimschke is widely accredited with many innovations in gun engraving and one of the most coveted of collectors. I believe he's credited with actually simplifying the Old World German Scroll and developing what's called New York Scroll or Nimschke Scroll. It was developed to be simpler and faster to engrave. In my opinion Glahn's scrollwork has a marked resemblance to that same scroll. I wonder if there was any professional relationship between these two engravers?

I have none of the reference books to refer to, only what is online and that being limited. Need to fine a copy of TPS as well as Nimschke's book and I think there's another one on 19th Century Gun Engravers. Anyway, perhaps some of you more knowledgeable than I with these books might comment on what I've written today and please do. In the meantime I'm going to check my local Public Library to see what might be there. Thanks for reading.

[Dean Romig]

Mr. Smith, can you give us the serial number of your unusually engraved lifter? That way we can have a reference period within which we can compare guns.

Do you know if yours was specially commissioned for an exposition or special showing?






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[ch]

I haven't seen it and would like more pictures please. That is 1 cool of gun!!

[Dean Romig]

It is pretty well accepted that much of Jacob Glahn's engraving on high grade guns was "outside the box" and each gun was more or lass individualized, e.g., no two were alike.






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[B. Dudley]

There are pictures of this gun in a few other threads. It is a 2 barrel set.

[C.O.B.]

Perhaps it's what is called a Friday gun. To late in the day to start another project but to early to call it a day therefore some additional engraving. Regardless it's nice to have something unusual.

[Marty K.]

Rich...... That is an interesting thought,... but could two of those "sunbursts" be done in an afternoon? I haven't any idea how long that might take.....educate me....

[Jeffrey H. Smith]

Thank you to all that have commented. I'd planned to post again sooner but we're digging out of over 2' of snow here in upstate NY.
The serial number of this 10 ga. lifter is #4084, built in 1874. I know very little of the gun as there were no order books at that time. I wonder what Expos, Fairs or other prominent events may have been happening at that time that could have influenced this guns engraving? I too wondered if it was a "Friday Gun" and the extra adornments came about that way?
Of particular uniqueness with this gun is the variety of border types used on the lock plates. I do not recall seeing other guns with as many different types of border engravings on the lock plate as seen here. For a "D" grade type gun this has the typical sporting dog engravings as the base theme or concept, but then you see this unique creative aspect to the rear of the lock plate as well as the top tang area above the hammers. Was this a sort of special order, was it influenced by a significant expo or event, was it the engraver sort of doodling and honing his skills, trying new things?? I find it interesting as so many of these early guns are, especially those engraved by Jacob Glahn. This man's personality is expressed in my gun to some degree as well as many others he engraved. I find it interesting to try and speculate what may have been the influences for this gun.
I find Mr. Glahn a very interesting person, I admire all the guns he's engraved that I have seen. He must have been in his early 40's when my gun was engraved, was he a master engraver at that time? I know he moved on to other gun companies, in particular LC Smith and I thought Colt also? Maybe someone can confirm.
I've attached a few more pics of the gun and one of Mr. Glahn. Maybe with the full set of gun pics someone could speculate what might have influenced the engravings of this gun. Thanks to all who reply.