I'm inclined to agree with all you said there, Brian. The apprentice who engraved this gun may well have gone on to do an A1 Special or Invincible late in his career, although there's absolutely no way to ever connect those dots. I've seen examples of Trojans and similar lower-grade guns where the owner set out to "freshen" the engraving and it ended up covered with tight English scroll and a Bulino rhinoceros or some such on the trigger plate. I'm definitely not interested in being involved in one of those train wrecks.
I'm familiar with the process required to engrave one of these case-hardened receivers and it would take a very special set of circumstances to lead me down that road. My little sixteen is an example that may end up going that route, as it'll never be sold while I'm still living and previous owners have mostly ruined any collector value. I'm of the mind this engraving could be equalized with the proper graver, some fine cutting oil, and a lot of patience but like you imply, there's a certain character to be found in the irregular engraving as it currently stands. The young man who cut this has long since returned to dust and it would be more than a bit arrogant on my part (for lack of a better term) to apply 21st century technology to the work he left behind and call it improved.
I'll send you some detailed, hi-res photos of the wood when I get a little more cleaning done. Hopefully, you'll be willing to take on the job and we can make this old girl shine once again. In addition, the barrels are nowhere nearly as bad as the seller's photos represented, either inside or out. A few minutes with a Flex-Hone should work wonders on this set. If the gunk on the inside is consistent with the gunk on the outside, it'll be easy work and not much of it.
One thing for certain is that I'm gonna have to grind up a whole set of screwdrivers just to fit this particular gun! Almost every screw head on it features one of those razor-thin English slots filed into it. I own several pocketknives whose blades won't fit into those little narrow openings.
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