Vintage Engraving for the Indian Market.

I have always had a penchant for the old English engraved game scenes executed on guns specifically for the Indian market. Perhaps this was gained from many visits to the subcontinent to retrieve this type of gun and rifle. Obviously when you came across a nicely engraved gun amongst the plainer more common gun or rifle, you felt like you had hit pay dirt!

There is a distinct charm to this type of engraving and I think much of this is down to the lack of photographs being used for reference by the engraver, something I have never advocated. Engravers of the time would have no doubt used drawings for reference and perhaps never even seen for themselves, either in a photograph or Zoo, a true likeness of some of these animals they were depicting.

Drawings remain, in my opinion, the best reference for engraving work, if an engraver is able to draw at a high level like say Rashid and Paul Lantuch can, I believe it is a huge advantage in creating a truly original work on a modern gun, much like I imagine this work done in about 1910 was at that time.

4 Comments

K.Nash on September 2, 2015 at 10:45 pm

A 'stocked to the fences' A. Hollis SL double rifle! Very nice! My favorite style of engraving as well, Simon. So, any idea on who made it?

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- Simon Clode on September 2, 2015 at 11:23 pm
  
  I am afraid 'no idea' who would have made this, I am not clued up on their history.
  
  Reply
  - Mark Mitchell on September 3, 2015 at 9:18 am
    
    Looking at the shape of the action and work quality I think it would have been made by Harry Leonard who also built for W.J.Jeffery aswell as a few others.Leonards factory was just round the corner from Price Street in the Birmingham Gun Quarter,so just up the road from the Westley Richards factory.
    
    Reply
Gary Duffey on September 3, 2015 at 1:24 pm

Amazing work among 10 pins and two screws!

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