Quote:
Originally Posted by rburg
Not to detract from an otherwise excellent post... Why don't you just be honest and tell the truth. Not just all stamped up, but horribly defaced. As was the British custom.
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100 years ago, none of the people involved were thinking of these in terms of collector interest or value. They were thinking of them in terms making sure that they worked properly, to a standard, for soldiers in a war, and making sure that this could be readily apparent to harried/hurried soldier/clerks who had to issue them to the fighters. They were and remain, first and foremost, a tool. Most of the time, the only use that matters is in a fight with a dangerous person or a dangerous animal (often overlapping concepts), and this is true of most martial tools. Consider the katana or other tools of the samurai. Art today, but only because they were made by artisans for a serious purpose.
In some circles, a modern analysis looks at them as art of some kind, which is arguable. It is also not relevant. The same is true of modifications made by civilian users for many years, and still done today. Rural dwellers, cops, woodsmen, even target shooting competitors, etc. - they made changes to make the firearm more useful to them for serious purposes. If you have read "Sixguns", Keith commented on mean horses and meaner cows, as I recall. The only perspective relevant to the analysis is that of the user who desired the modifications.
Sorry for the divergence, but this is important stuff to remember.