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The Czar's Parker:

$287,500 and Packed for Duluth

Jack Puglisi, owner of Puglisi Gun Emporium, in Duluth, Minnesota, was seeking a way to put his business on the map in every sense of the phrase. Figuratively, he wants to be known for an inventory of collectible firearms at the highest end of the scale-a name in the lofty firmament. More literally, he wants discriminating gun buyers to consider a diversion to Duluth the next time business or a corporate-jet refueling brings them to the Twin Cities, 21/2 hours away.

Puglisi was looking for a way "to enhance the idea of the gunroom as a destination." Consider the photo essay on Puglisi's shop that we ran in January/February 2004, and you'll see that the idea of "creating a guy's ideal gunroom" is not new, but rather refined. The deep leather chairs, the wine-red oriental carpets and the racks of fine guns-really, very few that could be called plain or even "affordable"-all invite a visit.

And so it came to be that Puglisi saw an opportunity and on March 13 was on the phone with a telephone-bidding agent at James D. Julia Auctioneers, in Maine, preparing to take part in the sale of the Parker A1 Special built for Czar Nicholas II of Russia. "The Czar's Parker" had re-emerged only recently, an object of almost mythic scale by virtue of provenance, quality of build and the speculation among collectors surrounding a storied gun that had forever been held privately. He had thought about the gun for more than two months, since seeing it displayed at the International Sporting Arms Show in Las Vegas.

"I couldn't think of another gun more important in the history of Parkers," he said later. "I knew it would be a terrific investment for the store-one of the most notable American shotguns in existence."

Parker Bros. No. 168304 began in March, 1914, as an order for a 12-bore A1 Special on a No. 2 frame with 32" barrels of Whitworth steel, placed by the officers of the Czar's staff. The engraving is extraordinary and covers every bit of bright metal-work on the gun and then some.Com plete documentation of the assembly and order history were offered with the gun, detailing the outbreak of war in Europe and the return of the gun from the shippers in New York, where for some reason it had not left the pier. With no further communications from the Russians, Parker Bros. found an American buyer for the gun late in 1915. The gun reportedly stayed in the family of that buyer until last October, though it apparently was restocked in the 1930s through arrangement by Abercrombie & Fitch.

The auctioneers estimated a value range of $225,000 to $325,000. In preparing the phone operator for a most unusual opening gambit, Puglisi had very specific instructions: "Jump up right away and call it out loud, 'A quarter-million dollars!' Don't let the auctioneer go on with the description; be dramatic, and don't hesitate."

Everyone in the room was waiting for this lot, and every phone operator had a potential client on the line. Andrew Truman, a spokesman for Julia's who was at the front of the room, said the atmosphere was electric with the anticipation of the bidding to come. The lot number was read and the introduction started. Puglisi's operator's interruption was like a sudden jolt that left only silence in its wake. "He shot them all right out of the water with that bid," Truman said. It is the most ever paid at auction for an American shotgun: $287,500 with the seller's commission.

Puglisi was trying for the shock value of starting high, knowing that a three- or four-party bidding war could end up going past that point eventually anyway. And, yes, he was prepared to go higher if the other bidders regained their composure. So were others: Within a half-hour of the sale, he received a call from an interested party who'd surmised Puglisi had bought the gun and offered a considerable premium. "I knew immediately that I had not made a mistake," Puglisi said, but the caller wanted to take delivery of the gun right away. That ran counter to Puglisi's original intent to bring the gun and its prestige to Duluth. The caller offered a "now-or-never" kind of number-and Puglisi took delivery of the gun three days after sending the auctioneers a shipping case.

"The air is so thin for the real top, top, top collectibles," Puglisi said, "and the demand is expanding in that upper two to three percent of guns." Now that the Czar's Parker is in Duluth, it is a validation of the quality of the collection Puglisi has amassed with the help of his son, John, as well as a nudge to attract buyers to the shop. "Eventually, we will sell the gun," Puglisi said, "but for now the idea is that when John steps in to run the business, it improves the legacy that I'll hand him."

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