As I look around at the world of original rifles one thing seems to hit me. My personal tastes are leaning toward simply clean works with some modest embellishments and what I would call understated elegance, classy touches and straight forward features. I understand that any work may reflect the demands of the original customer and I doubt any maker would turn down a job just because they have a vision that the finished product would not reflect well on their skills and style. I'll liken it to the gal on American Pickers with all the tattoos. When is "more" overdoing it? When is another inlay of a circle, moon, acorn, pointing finger, fish, squirrel, etc etc etc just too much. Was it ever too much back in the day it was made? Does an excessive number of gaudy features tend to detract from the appeal of and maybe the value of an original work? Does some of this represent the builders boredom with not having enough to do and just continuing adding features at will and at random with no real reason? There was a day when I thought all or much of the embellishment on a rifle has some deep secret meaning known only to the builder and original owner. But I'm wondering if it was just a builder who got up one morning and decided to stick another inlay on the thing!
Thoughts?
