I am so sorry to learn of this. Rene' was a friend & he engraved several guns for myself & friends in S. TX. In the 70's he would come & spend some parts of his summers there on a ranch. He brought Philippe w/him when Philippe was in his early 20's & his best student. Rene' was a true gentleman and a really fine & funny regular sort of person, we had many a laugh together. He was Felix Funkin's understudy & among other accomplishments was, to my knowledge, the only person to ever be awarded a Doctorate of Engraving by the University of Leige. I don't think there was ever anyone who could layout & execute a better large gold line scroll .. arguably the most difficult of tasks. I know that his students had to 'draw', not engrave, scrolls for the first two years. He was adamant that the scroll was the most difficult to master & one had to learn to draw them perfectly before their execution cold be undertaken. Philippe was fairly quiet about that, having already mastered their execution in the smaller varieties when we first met. Rene' knew very early on that Philippe would become a true master at the art. We are truely diminshed by Rene's passing. Thank you for letting us know.
