As many of you know, I have been studying the work of gunsmith William G. Shreckengost for about 8 years now. To date, I've had the
opportunity to handle about 70+ longrifles that he made in his 50+ year career. One of the things that is evident to me after handling
these rifles is that there was a dramatic change in the quality of his engraving over that period. I would like to present a study of this
change with photos to ALR and bring forth the question of whether the dramatic change was the result of the process of being self taught
or whether he may have studied under Anthony Bonnet or some other teacher. Strangely the engraving seems to take on 3 somewhat
distinct characteristic elements. Two of those elements appear to be a progressive of the same style where the third and I believe earliest
form is significantly different.
