17th annual gun show rekindles interest in antique firearms

A few months short of 20 years ago, the late John Rogers, then the personnel director for this family newspaper and bible, and I traveled to Rangeley for purposes of spying on a local gun show.

I had been regularly campaigning that the City of Bangor ought to have an annual gathering of firearms owners and collectors. We observed and liked what we saw, and the Bangor Daily News Charities, Inc., elected to sponsor the exhibition.

Well, the 17th showing recently was completed, now under the whip and sponsorship of the Penobscot Conservation Association, Inc., an organization with an unmatched record locally for funding and actively playing a role in the area of community participation.

The groundswell of interest in firearms since the recent exhibition has been widespread.

When you think about it and why, it has to be a growing portent for quality. The handcrafting of guns is a unique business. It involves the shaping of wood and metal into mechanisms which are not only pleasing in configuration, but which must also meet demanding functional requirements. The gun must be light in weight, balance properly, fit the shooter perfectly and at the same time withstand tremendous internal pressure followed by the jolting forces of recoil.

The side-by-side double had its periods of acceptance and rejection in this country. But in England and the continent the side-by-side has been in continuous favor for two centuries. Over there, the high grade double has always been considered the aristocrat of guns.

Very good-to-fine side-by-side doubles have been made in this country by Ithaca, Colt, Winchester, Remington, L.C. Smith, Parker, Daly, Lefever and Fox and are cherished pieces, but the most prominent glamour-name doubles ever made in the United States are the Parkers and Winchester Model 21s.

Parker Bros. introduced its first hammer-gun double in 1869. This was a most progressive firm. But during the depression, things got rough for the smaller arms coumpanies. Savage Arms acquired the A.H. Fox Company, Parker was sold to Remington and Marlin got L.C. Smith with Hunter Arms.

The most colorful history of the gun trade has come out of England, and the English gun trade is most noted for fine doubles. The makes have demanded and received steep prices. Some very fine guns are made in Spain, Italy and Germany, but the old Bond Street names like Holland and Holland, Purdy, Westly Richardson, James Woodward, Churchill, Goss, William Powell, Beesley, Webley & Scott are most often ranked the highest.

Guns bearing these names lose little in value; those made some years ago, if in mint condition, now sell for more than they did originally, another reason why people appear in aisle-filling numbers at the increasingly popular exhibitions like the annual Bangor Gun Show.

These guns, second hand, will seldom have a price tag of less than $1,500. I once daintily handled a Purdy with two sets of barrels and highly engraved side locks at Winter Haven, Fla., ticketed to sell at $15,000.

The English guns aren’t the only ones with this kind of price tag. I saw a grade “B” Parker 20-guage at the Bangor show two years ago in very good condition with a single selective trigger and automatic ejector priced at $3,500. This piece probably was in the area of 35-years-old.

You probably have noticed by now that I have given scant attention to the over-under, and for one reason. Fanciers of the ultra-fine shotguns, in large part, claim that the ideal form of scatterguns is the side-by-side.

A number of U.S. firms now import guns in a wide price range.

So, why shell out a small fortune for something that looks pretty? I think the answer is this: When you are buying a gun that is made by exquisitely skilled hands rather than machines, you are buying a work of art. It is the product of native talent and endless training. Just a few men have the skill of a Rembrandt, so equally few can take unformed wood and metal and turn these materials into a creation of exquisite precision and beauty.

The success of the recent firearms exhibition, the wide range of conversation coming in the wake of the event, plus the huge number of major sales at the site, brought to mind our scouting mission to Rangeley.

And from all accounts, not all tied to the recent gun show, buyers are out there willing to pay four-figure prices for a prized possession.