Westley Richards Exhibition Projects - The Next Paul Lantuch Engraved Guns in Design.

Two months ago when Paul Lantuch visited the factory after completing the finishing of the Africa rifle we discussed at length the next projects that were on the cards. These included a pair of round action 12g guns, a .577 Hand Detachable lock rifle and a further .600 NE sidelock double rifle in the Africa, India series.

By Simon Clode

I was in 2 minds whether to post these drawings of the fist project up, the pair of 12g round body sidelocks, initial thoughts of people plagiarising a practise rife in this area. Perhaps it is a bit premature, but then I felt they are such nice drawings why not!

The drawings also show nicely the process of designing an exhibition gun so that a concrete theme can be executed. So many guns are engraved with minimal, if any, layout and composition work being done in advance. Paul and I have been bouncing drawings and thoughts back and forth across the Atlantic for the past 2 months and these are now the working drawings for the guns. There will of course be additional engravings and carvings but the "theme is set".

The pair of guns will be executed in the Rococo style, carved steel relief figures and decoration with a gold background. I am afraid you will have to be very patient to see the end result but we are off and running now as they say!

By Simon Clode

3 Comments

Larry on September 9, 2016 at 3:04 pm

Stunning! Very cool design! I'm looking forward to seeing the final product in quite some time!

Reply
Vance Daigle on September 9, 2016 at 3:30 pm

Good Day Simon,

I read about the great engraver of the past so often and how good there work was thinking, man I would love to have a gun engraved by that guy.

Well for those lucky enough to get a gun engraved by Paul they are expereincing that right now. I truly beleive that Mr. Lantuch will go done in history as one of the best!!!! Thank you for sharing, I will look forward to more on this pair in the future.

In Christ
Vance,

Reply
Keith on September 11, 2016 at 1:33 am

Those drawings are beautiful. I can see the family resemblance to the Lion in the floorplate.

IMO any engraver who is capable of plagiarizing that level of work would be severely compromising their own artistic style and identity by doing so. That's probably not a very clever career move for such a talented artist.

The engraving has a strong middle eastern theme. I'm being provocative here, so please feel free to ignore (my speculation on this subject is worth exactly what I paid you towards the gun... nothing!), could that also be reflected in "Damascus" skins on the barrels? or would that be second rate taste and extra weight in the wrong place, compared to richly blued fluid steel barrels?

Reply