16ga vh 1899 Not sure what to make of engraving?

Have you a PGCA letter?

Doesn’t look factory, more than likely special request as an unmarked gun and some one marked it up.

No letter

Since there are no flying turnips it's aftermarket. :-)

It does look contemporaneous with the gun.

+1

have been told, that from time to time parker would experiment with engraving patterns, as variations on a theme...

once had a dhe with that level of engraving, but somewhat different than the standard established d grade pattern...

was further told that this engraving work was done by trainees, under the watchful eye of experienced masters...

as for the vh gun above, it is an early vh, not necessarily assembled in 1899, but perhaps a few years eariier?

could it be a prototype frame, orginally submitted for evaluation for adoption for the new vh grade gun, circa 1895?

anomalies like this are always of interest...thanks for posting...

It looks like portions of original engraving has been ground/filed/sanded/polished off, maybe to remove pits, remaining portions look contemporaneous with the gun. If you look closely, you can still small areas where engraving was nor completely removed.
Mike

It’s a VH Parker which typically had no engraving other than border. To me it looks totally original. Best guess I have is either the factory experimented with adding a little flavor to the gun or more likely someone in the engraving department had a little extra time and doodled on it. Very rare find! A Parker letter would be interesting to be sure it wasn’t ordered by buyer. If not, I doubt a letter will tell you much.