doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Do you like this engraving? H&H.

Fair enough , Dig.
It certainly provoked some response...
And, if I may ask,what's the price range for something like that?
I think I saw a DR by Alex' Henry done in similar style (DGJ,or online, not in hand), it was a top maker , anyhow.
It seems silly, but it seemed more appropriate to me on the rifle, than on the Gun, lol.
Cheers
franc

Not sure what this one will end up at - the last one I sold was not as good; a 16-bore with sleeved barrels. It made �15,000.

It came in from Australia and I have yet to be given a price from the owner.

I knew it would provoke some divergent opinions - it seems many on the board had not seen one before. I hope it proved interesting.

Underside Gargoyle makes me have to say..."No".

Hmmmm. After these last several posts I began to ponder about the historical context of this gun. Given that the gun was made during a time of Germanic ascendancy (Franco-Prussian War to WWI, 1870-1914) this may explain the preference for a more "Continental" type of deeper-relief engraving. This was also the time of the resurgence in the interest of mythology in general, (also due to many of the other things happening at the time alluded to in the previous posts) inspiring the creation/construction of things like the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. So, we have a deviation from the more traditional type of English engraving to one that could easily be called today "Pop Culture" inspired. Given those reasons, it's entirely possible that the engraving was probably not seen quite as unusual at that time compared to now, but might have been considered more "Trendy". Given the general theme of the engraving, I suspect that the figure on the bottom was a "Harpy" rather than merely a grotesque, ready to snatch up an evildoer and carry them off to the Erinyes. I totally understand, given the theme, why there would be Griffins/Gryphons on the sides and fences, (usually depicted with more bird-like heads, as far as the ones on the sides) but the reasoning behind the goat-horned fellow on the lower bottom part of receiver and the trigger guard kind of perplexes me. Could it be a Satyr or a Faun, or possibly Pan? (the God of hunting, among other things) Or, even Beelzebub himself?

I'd like to know who commissioned this engraving. It'd probably explain things quite a bit. I like the Aleister Crowley reference,(Thelema Mysticism) that type of mystics were certainly around at that time. I actually met some Agape members, many years ago when I lived in California, although as I remember, none of'em were the "Big Three" shotgun types..

Down in the peasant class I'd rather have The regular Royal scroll engraving........but ... but for the right price I could shoot it.

I'm with you there on both counts monty.
Cheers
franc
PS, Monty, are you a hands on jeweler?
I have a cherished Indian silver/turquoise ring (Navajo ?) from Arizona that has, after 30 years of never taking it off,has a bad flat spot on the finger hoop..would like to see if I could fix it will some delicate tapping on a mandrel type deal....could you help via e mail?
franc

Check it out - similar engraving on an earlier H&H:

http://www.collectorebooks.com/gregg01/shotgun3/Lot-3440.htm

Guess SB's was more than a one off.

OWD

I absolutely love the bold, classical engraving of these guns!

It's a "no" for me, a definite "no". Second, third, or fourth look didn't help change my mind.

owd..I'm find that gun you posted to be better executed than Digs one,a little tamer perhaps, but comes off , to me, as better work...
cheers
franc