I am somewhat suspicious that the reference in the article to "imported rubber buttplates" may have referred to the imported rubber recoil pads from the S.W. Silver Company in England who supplied Parker Brothers with their products. I doubt (somewhat) that Parker Brothers couldn't have handled the domestic procurement or manufacture of a hard rubber buttplate. Early Parker Brothers order books indicate that the Silvers recoil pad is not always referred to as a recoil pad, but it often is referred to as a "recoil butt" and the hard rubber item we now refer to as a buttplate was referred to as a "rubber butt". No specific terminology for either item was used until much later than 1907. By "specific terminology", I mean terminology that would indicate to the layman exactly what they were talking about.
