Decoration is about personalization sometimes. The stuff on Mark's fridge pertains to Mark; the stuff on mine to me. But it's all personal ephemera; the snapshots yellow, those awkwardly charming crayon drawings fall off; the pizza joint on the magnet has been out of business for 16 yrs. A very good thing imo. I wouldn't want Larry Hagman's mug or mine on a gun; the obstinate persistance of the image of the personal, the contemporaneous, and the trivial doesn't please in the long run.
I've never really understood chambered nautili, rose&scroll, acanthus leaves on guns. Something those income-supplementing watch engravers knew how to do perhaps. I think I understand the dogs and birds--timeless "moment" of the hunter enshrined and commemorated. Dog on point; bird flushed; shot not taken YET. After the shot it's all tired dogs, feathers and bones, meat in the pot. In satiety we look back at that happiest moment. The saddest engraving "snapshot" I've ever seen is the "transition" from bird to flower pot of the Citori "Golden Clays" pattern. Not much different than instructions for writing a letter of resignation.
jack
