Hi:

A friend of mine told me that the local gun expert has a chance to buy a German mfg. 16 ga. O/U that has been engraved with game scenes.


Now stay with me on this one. The game scenes change animals ie. rabbits to geese to grouse. with the different the angle of the viewer's eye. As one looks at a lesser angle of 90 degrees, this is when the scenes change.

This process is a medieval art that begins with the letter "A" and has been in art before. I even saw it during my sheltered life.

What is this effect called and have anybody ever seen a gun engraved in this manner?

I know nothing about the gun but I am going to ask if I may see it. Sounds very cool.


Sincerely.

Zeke

There is a technique wherein the plate is cut in ridges, like checkering, and the faces on the left can be dimpled with one image, and the other sides with another. Is that what you mean? You must look at it at a very low angle to see only the faces of one side of the ridges.
Not common at all.
An image that morphs through optical illusion, like an Escher print, or as an example, "The Witches" would be easier.
Get some pictures!

I believe the Escher print changes from one figure to another without changing the angle of the eye, a manipulation evolving from one to another: flowers to fish. Uncommon wouldn't be the word for what you describe, particularly from an engraving on steel. Magic would be more like it!

Franchi, I have not looked it up, but I remember early Greek or Roman art and the term Agora or similar. When I heard it it was 50 years ago, but I do think it related to animals. If I am on spot, I'll be more amazed than anyone.

Agora is a Greek word meaning a meeting place for a number of people. It can also be a prefix. Medical terms usually have Greek prefixes and Latin suffixes. Example--Agoraphobia, a fear of such places and many people.

Best,
John

John, it was 50 years ago, so I think I should get a free turn.

A marketplace is a good place to find those retro plastic keychain fobs with a Buick at one pov and Betty Grable at another. Agora IS an ancient art process to wit (which at this day is to Google), an application of pigment and wax to? perhaps amphorae.

If you were making images on the two opposing sides of parallel "furrows" made by an engraving chisel, you'd stipple or "dimple" one image onto all the facets which are the north side of the furrows; the other image on all the facets which constitute the south sides of the furrows just as CZ says. To view, you would have to change your pov as with the novelty keychain. Not as easy to rotate a gun action as it is a keychain but no great hardship in the interest of capital-A Art.

jack

Daryl:
It looks as your recollection is correct.
Good on you and thanks to the Rabbit, as well.

I am thinking that we don't see this due to its difficulty. It must take the skill of a true master's master to do it well.

Best,
John

To add a third intermediary image would require the blending of the main points of the images in a straight on view. I've seen this (Gasp), in comic books where you fold the pages to get a different image. Also an old episode of CSI.
But it would take a Bank note engraver to do a hologram like engraving at such a small scale.

Damn, Rabbit, I just poured a glass of wine and saw your post. Suddenly I don't feel so feeble minded. Maybe like holograms [sp?] today. John, I thought you caught me, but now I can hunt another day. One of the values of taking 2 years of Latin in high school.

There were advantages? All I can remember is my mother forcing me to translate Pliny the elder after baseball practise on weekdays. Sometimes my arm hurt so much I couldn't write.

jack

Jack, of all of the courses I had in high school or college, I think the most valuable were Latin and geometry in high school. Latin because of an inspired teacher who made two years of it interesting and revalent [sp?] and geometry because it, more than any other course, taught you how to think. Thousands of times I have had the advantage of my Latin in figuring out words, meanings, etc. and the history it contained is even more valuable today.

I don't think my mom ever challenged me to translate Pliny [spelling?] as we were Swedes and had little Classic intuition. But, "Omnes Gallia est dividia in tres partes" -----was that Pliny ? Oh, the Gallic wars----it's coming back to me.

Think the bit about all Gaul is Julius Ceasar, Daryl, but you knew that. Pliny more about how I like to watch the cute little slave who hauls the water. My mom none the wiser altho she claimed she checked the stuff before I handed it in. I guess she skimmed to see how many pages of this stuff I got thru.

jack

Jack, my strict Latin teacher never introduced us to nubile water bearing slaves. Just the other stuff and dressing up at the Saturnallia to eat with one's fingers. We had slaves there, but mostly with bad complexions.