Large Charles Parker Vise 1867 ?

[Jonathan Widelo]

Today I was given this large Charles Parker Co vise. The vise has 8" jaws is 27"long and weighs around 180 to 200lbs It has 1 patent date from 1854 and several from 1867, so I am figuring it was made sometime after 1867. It has removable jaws, 1 is missing so I will have to have one made. Does anyone else have one of these? I have never seen a bench vise this big or heavy.
I have added a few pictures for reference.

~ Jonathan

[Dusty]

Sir...I have had several vises and other items of manufacture by Charles Parker Co. The last vise I owned even had a brass serial number plate affixed with the number 758 in my shop for over 20 years. Here is a bit of history on the firm.

"The Meriden Enterprise Center is a large manufacturing plant that is home to over 60 businesses, located in the center of Connecticut.

The plant was the former home of companies such as the Charles Parker company, known for the manufacture of the Springfield rifle and the development of one of the early repeating rifles in the mid- nineteenth century. Charles Parker was born in 1809 and rose from poverty to become one
of Connecticut’s leading industrialists. He also became the city of Meriden's first mayor. He started his manufacturing career inventing and producing coffee mills in a small shop in 1832.

By 1860, he owned several large factories and employed hundreds of people, in and around Meriden. Parker products included hardware and house wares, flatware, clocks, lamps, piano stools and benches, vises, coffee mills, industrial machinery, and, after 1862, guns. Guns, however, never
amounted to more than 10 percent of Parker’s business. Charles Parker died in 1901 and his descendants carried on his businesses until 1957. The Great Depression of the 1930s took its toll on the Parker enterprise and it never fully recovered. Parker products have now become “collector’s items,” especially the Parker shotguns. The Charles Parker Company sold its gun facility and the rights to the Parker gun
to Remington Arms Company in 1934, and Remington continued the Parker shotgun line until World War II.
The attraction by collectors to the Parker shotgun comes because of the gun’s inherent quality and beauty.
The Parker gun is an American classic".

[Jonathan Widelo]

Dusty,

Thanks for the info. I have heard these are high quality vises. I have one "newer" Parker vise from the 1930s that was my grandfathers. This vise has a 4" jaw which I thought was a good size until I found this one. Do you have any Parker catalogs ?

Thanks,

~ Jonathan