So ugly it's almost cute. Those buggers had a reputation among old time cast bullet shooters as being very accurate with properly fitted lead bullets. If I were at your dinner I would throw a bid at it.

The "checkered thumb rest" is simply a means of gaining purchase on the cocking knob for manually cocking the mechanism. Note too the absence of a safety. Don't want to have to fumble with such a superfluity with a squad of Huns bearing down on you!