I have a W. Parker hammer, black powder gun. Gun weighs about 12 lbs.,says w. parker on side plates,London fine twist on rib between barrels...
Parker is a veddy, veddy British name. Hawker's 1846 American edition of "Advice to Young Sportsmen" lists a gun maker: "Parker, Field, & Sons." Also there was a Thomas Parker, and the W. Parker is no doubt a "William." In other words, British makers named Parker were around long before Charles Parker of Meriden CT decided to put his name on a breech-loading shotgun.
Toward the end of the 1800s, some cheap ($11.50) Belgian guns were marked "T Parker" and "T Barker" and were sold by Sears and Monkey Wards. These guns were clearly advertised as "Cheap Belgian" and as having "Imitation Damascus barrels." No one was fooled. The entry level Parker Bro's P-grade hammer gun pictured on the same catalog page was $65.00.
There is the long-standing urban legend that foreign makers marked guns "Parker" to fool our supposedly stupid ancestors. I have debunked this so many times that I am getting weary. There is a chapter in my recent book entitled "Fooling the Public," which is case-on-point. If your gun has "London Fine Twist" on the rib it is not a cheap Belgian gun. And it should be obvious that anyone who wanted a Parker Bro's gun made in Meriden CT USA could read the London inscription on the rib.
Someone familiar with foreign-made shotguns should take a look at your gun in real life, check for proof marks, etc. This is not to say that it is valuable. But the usual (and expected) cryptic comments blowing it off as a Parker Bro's knock off do not tell the story. EDM
