Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Wells
Factory patterns for the most part tend to be on the basic side especially animal scenes. They had to be cut fast and there was no time to put too much detail in an animal which is why they mostly looked like cartoons rather than lifelike renditions.
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Tim, I think that might be said of the lower grades (I'm talking Parkers here) but more to the point, specific engravers had their own style of engraving and executed their own rendition of birds, dogs, and (ugh) elk. On grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 a certain engraver might render beautiful depictions of setters and pointers while another engraver working on the same grades makes these same animals look like 'smoos'.
Yes, the engravers couldn't spend as much time on a Grade 3 as they would be expected to painstakingly spend on a Grade 6 or 7 so naturally the overall appearance of the engraving suffered a bit. But I think the biggest difference in the appearance of the birds and dogs, etc. was in the mind and hand of the engraver.
These examples are all different engraving periods by all different engravers. The renditions are their individual concepts of setters and they are all from Grade 3 and 1 grade 4 Parkers. (The first and second may have been done by the same hand)
Incidentally, only one of these guns is mine... No. 1
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