Ron,
German and Austrian engravers undergo stringent training in a school for several years then a lenghty apprenticship. Any journeyman, and probably apprentice could have done that work in short order without a pattern. Also on a common item like the claw mount (einhakmontage) an engraver can make a smoke print from an example and transfer it to the one to be engraved.
I suspect that it was engraved with a burin prior to the steel being hardened as I don't see any progress marks common to hammer & chisel engraving.
