Shotgunlover. I think that you may have missed the point about what he was saying, guns as old as your grandfather, hand engraving etc, he was talking about vintage side by side's you could purchase at very little money. Not one of the modern CNC made Laser engraved mass produced offerings of today. Anyway the jury will still be out on todays product for at least a hundred years, IMHO a thing of easy maintenance and superior strength does not automatically make a thing of classic beauty especially when a hundred years of water have flowed under the bridge.

This one has had a hundred fifty years of water under its bridge.
You pull this one hundred and fifty year old product of the gun trade out of a gun slip at a shoot, no one is interested in how you shoot only the gun as he says and for an oldy like me very useful when it comes to the how well did you do type conversations at the end of the shoot.
He did also say with an older side by side you miss in style, I do a lot of that now so the gun is a good distraction.