Yessir, James, that LC's about right. Such a gun can't really be cosmetically hurt by common-sense use. It will handily launch 1 3/8 of Bismuth at safe pressures, as well. The price is interesting.
regarding Damascus Elsie prices, I had a slightly dismaying event a couple of months ago, when I tried to sell a really, reallly nice Damascus Elsie 12, that had case and color AND Modern Dimensions. It would not even fetch an offer of 400 against it's listing of 600. And it was GOOD in wood and metal and bore.
Were I not in my iconoclastic non-gathering of material-goods-decades I would have sold other guns to own it. But, alas the toy quota is filled with intersting leveractions right now.
However, that Ten just went on my 'watch list', thank you very much, ;~`)
Our friend, Lowell, is not trusting of Damascus, good or poor. I respect his opinion on the subject, and will not point out it's superior appearance, it's never-ending lovliness..etc. ;~`)
However, I do think that we have all looked at 'cosmetic condition' so earnestly, due to the dollar value, that we forget the perfectly sound vintage guns that turn up as grist for the ham-handed, the ignorant, or the willfully malevolent. Instead, we could be using them as is, for what they are.
When I first began the study of furniture conservation, I was non-plussed that my local peers were little interested in the new level of treatments and basic knowledge that was now available. Eventually, in conversations at national conventions and in classrooms, the scenario of crafts people who know better, but are either incapable of doing upscale work or unwilling to learn came to be discussed.
In fact, active anger and resentment resulted from even hinting that the 'master craftsman's thirty years of mostly self-taught 'practice' is full of half-truths, monetary devaluations, and destruction of cultural artifacts. So it appears in the 'gunsmith' trade, as witness the current examples to hand via the'edz'. Their edzing is exactly analogous to the furniture repair trade a decade ago.
Now, thanks to Antique Roadshow and other public education, people are a lot more cautious about 'practice' and there has been some reaching out across the trade.
So, i see that Ten or the apparently overpriced LC 16 and kinda wince at their possible fate. However, while this is not a good time of year to flog off surplus, perhaps a nice downpayment on an outstanding large bid will show up in a timely manner!!
Hooo...Tens!!
