I received my copy of " Masterpieces of the Longrifle, Joe Kindig, Jr. Collection “, by Patrick Hornberger and Joe Kindig, III on Tuesday, March 10,2015. The book is an 8-7/8" tall x 11-1/2" long. A very beautiful color outer sleeve, with the John Phillip Beck " Lion Carved Rifle " taking up most of the front of the book. The back of the book is the black and white picture of Joe Kinding, Jr. in his gun room, in 1962 that we all have seen many times. The inside cover is a rich green with gold print.
What a beautiful book, the color is amazing. So esthetically pleasing, so very well photographed and the rifles are now shown so much brighter, in stark comparison with the dimness of the Exhibit Room in Reading that had everyone that attended talking about. A photograph of one room of the Reading Exhibit clearly shows just how low the light level was.
The photographs of all of the individual longrifles starts on page 28 with a signed George Schreyer and a signed John P. Beck on page 29. Conventionally, one page is one rifle. There are four photographs of one rifle, two smaller pictures, details photographed with a gray hue colored background. Then there are two larger photographs, one a photo of the rifles full length of the lock side, the second photo is a detail of about a half of a stock viewing the side plate, the cheek piece and butt, all photographed in a white background. A written detail about each rifle is included on each single page with the maker’s name, date and specific’s as to what school the rifle is attributed, the county and state, and also references of where each piece has been described in a prior piece of Literature.
Some of the rifles are of grand design or build, these are rifles that have fame or that deserve a special note. They take up a length across two pages with the lock side or right side of the longrifle alone. These rifles have an 8-1/2” by 23” two page spread with a white canvas for their format. They are shown with enlarged photographs. They share more written details with us. These longrifles typically have five or six enlarged pictures, some with as many as eight pictures. The detail is fantastic and the color is superb. The longrifles are in a much brighter light than what were shown in the exhibit and you can see details.
I have not had the book a week yet, and it is one of the best longrifle books already. Many of these rifles we have seen for years in black/white, and in many various forms of publication, mostly in the two sets of books “Rifles of Colonial America Volumes I ac & II”, and the “Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in its Golden Age”. " Masterpieces of the Longrifle, Joe Kindig, Jr. Collection “is an excellent addition to these prior books.
" Masterpieces of the Longrifle, Joe Kindig, Jr. Collection “, by Patrick Hornberger and Joe Kindig, III is sensational. We are very fortunate to have so many Longrifles of the Kindig Collection shared with us. You will love this book.
