Stu, don't start a new thread on my account. Post'em here if you like.
I'm a bit of a curmudgeon about engraving. It has taken me a lot of years to get used to the idea of engraving, but the idea has grown on me. I really like some of the scroll and border work that I have seen on a number of guns that Ken and others have done.
What I'm not so wild about is engraved wildlife. Realist looking wildlife just doesn't do it for me (with the caveat that I really like Glenn's warthog and meerkat that Ken did). For that reason, I really dislike most wildlife art that auctions at Pheasant Forever banquets and the like.
I do love some folk art wildlife. When it is done right - hard to say what that means, but I know it when I see it. So, I was thinking about that the other day, and about the art deco gun and it struck me that maybe some sort of other art style would be interesting, but what? Well, I have a thing for pictographs along the Minnesota/Ontario border, and the petroglyph rock art of the Anasazi's in the desert southwest - in part because I have lived in both areas. But I am not sure that those types of paintings really do it for me, though a Kopapelli type of figure would definitely be unique...
I do, however, recall the blow-me-away cool cave art in France. I believe it runs 40k years. I don't identify with much of the wildlife per se, and for that matter, a good bit of it is extinct, but damn that stuff is amazing. So, I'll post a couple of my favorites and see what you guys think. In the end, though, this isn't a rifle that has any monetary value, simply because it will never be sold, so what tickles me is all that counts. If Ken can do it, and I can afford it (that last is something that just occurs to me)...
An Auroch (an extinct oxen-like beast).
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Aurochs in action

French, but every SW desertlike:

One of favorites

Another favorite. I love the lions in the background with the rhinos up front

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I wouldn't want a copy of any of these, but some of the animals, the style, and the composition attract me. I suspect a fancy rifle, engraved like this, would give a lot of people serious heartburn but the more I think about it, the more I start looking at my trinkets and start thinking, how much can I sell this, that and the other thing to finance this?
Well, anyway, it has been fun thinking about this and I have all summer to shoot this rifle and contemplate what to do to it to finish it off. Simple border and scroll seems more reasonable, but who knows?
Brent
PS. The rifle shot this morning for the first time - did pretty well too.