check these out

[seesbirds]

stumbled across these today.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1986.265.1,2

incredible  workmanship

Mark

[JV Puleo]

I think this may be the pair of ivory stocked pistols seized in a drug raid by the NYC police about ten years ago. They had been in private ownership (in this case the property of a big time drug dealer) but had once been on loan and displayed at the Met (in the 1920s?). Supposedly the NY police were going to destroy them until the Met intervened.

[Curt J]

Magnificent!  The very thought that these treasures might have been destroyed by some wrong-headed bureaucrats, is scarey.