doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Unique Low-Wall

Low-Wall

Great engraving, beautiful walnut it's just the length of the forearm that seems out of place, to me anyway. If it were mine I'd have it cut down. All right, I am a Philistine, but I know what I like. lol.

Harry

Beautiful done, but grotesque, engraving. German style engraving on an American gun is always out of place, IMO.
I do like the full length forearm even though it is not traditional. I admit that I'm a sucker for a Mannlicher stock.
What are the markings on top of the barrel?

IMHO, overall a nice gun at a distance.
I hope they are stating that they think Rudolph Kornbrath only did the grip cap. Study the cutting of the engraving on the receiver sides. The lion, on top, is nice; however the execution is not that clean.

What LRF said, definitely only 'guild' quality engraving. Stockwork, however, IMO is superb.
Regards, Joe

Thanks Joe, I tried hard to come up with the right verbage, but your "guild" hits the mark in the x ring. I would go as far to say that 2 different engravers did the left and right receiver sides.
Remove all the engraving and the gun would improve in looks.

Well..............since the forum lends itself to discussion, I'm going to respectfully disagree with previous assessments of this engraving.

First, there's some confusion in the Hallowell description of "mythical creatures". There aren't any. There's an eagle, a wolf's head, and a lion's head. The lion's head having some humanistic character....especially the nose. In Hallowell's listing on GunsInternational they further describe the grip cap as being "in the manner of Rudolph Kornbrath". I guess I don't have much problem believing all of this this to be Kornbrath's work. In E.C. Prudomme's book there is a Ballard action in the Kornbrath section that is similar full-coverage engraving.........different animals and different scroll.........but layout and use of space are very much the same.

When I look at the side panels of the low wall......there is a plain double border that frames the panel. There are four different "scroll" elements that tie this space together. Starting at the front there is the eagle in scroll fashion....two scroll elements that transition to the smaller wolf's head scroll element......the branch with berries in the eagle's claw and the eagle's tail feathers. The narrow end of the panel is terminated with a leaf scroll. A pinwheel rosette fills the area of the panel projection below the eagle's head. This is superb layout and executed well, regardless whether the subjects of the engraving satisfy a personal taste. Also the beaded background is excellent. The feathers on the eagle are great, the skulls on both eagle and wolf have a nice relief effect. This is the work of a really good engraver, and certainly has elements of Kornbrath's work.

When I inspect my own rifle with Kornbrath engraving, I'm amazed at how the work looks when held at arm's length.......where the effect of the engraving is designed to be viewed.........and how it looks under a magnifying lens (or closeup photography). What looks symetrical and balanced when viewed at normal distance.....isn't when closely inspected. This work was done with a graver and chaser's hammer. It wasn't accomplished with a hand-held pneaumatic tool under a microscope. We sometimes lose perspective when we view current work done by a Roger Kehr or Eric Gold. Naming only those two because their work is freely shown on formus like this one for our viewing pleasure.

I've no more opinion whether this is Kornbrath engraving than the seller, but I certainly believe it's in keeping with the type of work he did..........and the era he worked in.

I like it.

That is a rifle that, no matter how well its construction is executed, it is just plain impossible for me to warm up to. I find it hard to believe that it will sell for that price, but I suppose there is someone for everything.

I think this is an awfully good point.

On this forum there is a good collection of single-shot, low wall aficionados. This treatment of that style is definitely unconventional.

I feel much the same way about 1903 Springfield customs that remove or change the cutoff/bolt release.......or swap out the original bottom metal. Can't warm up to them regardless of the quality of work.

If you scroll down to picture 5 and then slide the scroll bar all the way to the right, there is the letter B and a couple of other symbols stamped at the top of the reciever. Do any of them indicate who the engraver might have been? Bob