I have been fortunate to receive some phone camera pics of the stock in process. What was obscured is being revealed, and it is a wonderful example of regia.

Dustin and others have made the point that the barrels could languish for years before being fitted to a gun. Yesterday I was cruising the French auction site, and found an Ideal with pattern welded tubes on a receiver with the modern single trigger guard- no lunettes, no doll's head, but those lovely brown barrels. Could have been 20 years of dust on the tubes before they were married to a receiver. What an adventure of discovery these guns are.

Mike

Tolerance: the abolition of absolutes

Consistency is the currency of credibility