I received a comment in response to “Thank God Our Elected Officials Are Looking Out for Us!” It came from a man with impeccable credentials in various fields, a man who is nobody’s fool, but he said one thing I take exception to:
“I personally do not find anything aesthetic about [firearms] (though I know others do rever [sic] them as works of art).”
If you’ve ever read this blog, you know I love firearms and make a portion of my living writing about them. I suspect this love of firearms is a result of my father patiently and consistently taking me to the arms and armor galleries of countless museums when I was a child. This almost certainly had less to do with his own interest in firearms (which was less than zero) and more to do with his understanding of how to get a small boy drugged on art and culture in general. My father was an extraordinary man; take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.
In addition to a love of firearms (and knives, swords, armor, the whole nine yards), one of the consequences of this early exposure was a fascination with any tool that is also a functional work of art. A quick list off the top of my head would include firearms, knives, saddles, bits, spurs, certain silver items, equine tools such as headstalls and mecates out of braided rawhide or horsehair (a process called hitching), certain antique cars, and I’m sure there are others that haven’t swum across my ken.
I could make an argument that an AR15 is as aesthetically pleasing as a hammer or wrench or any other tool that is perfectly distilled down to its functional essence to make it as efficient as possible, but let’s go for the more obvious examples.
Consider the lines of a fine side-by-side shotgun, a tool that has also been distilled down over the last one hundred and fifty years to its functional essence. Forget any fancy metal work or wood work; just look at the spare elegance of an Abbiatico & Salvinelli round-action shotgun,
or the classic lines of Lebeau-Courally bolt action rifle Hemingway would have been proud to carry.
Both of these display the same kind of elegant and functional simplicity you might find on a Clovis arrowhead; all three, shotgun, rifle, and arrowhead, are made aesthetically pleasing by being perfectly designed for their purpose, with nothing extraneous or distracting. Still not convinced? Let’s take it a step further and look at some engraving.
Ken Hunt’s magic on a Purdey action.
McKay Brown’s adaptation of the classic Celtic knot.
A Civil War battle scene on a Piotti.
A Westley-Richards sidelock.
A mule deer by Tommy Kaye on a pistol grip cap.
Charles Lee’s engraving on a Dale Tate shotgun.
You may not wish to own such things—or any kind of firearm, for that matter—but no one can deny the artistic merit of these most basic tools.
Take a moment to check out the workmanship of some of the greatest artists living today at the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association http://tcowboyarts.org/ the American Custom Gunmakers Guild http://www.acgg.org/ and the American Bladesmith Society http://www.americanbladesmith.com/
The tool as art is one of the greatest accomplishments of the foolish human animal.
Oh yes, I can deny the “artistic merit” of guns. In my mind, putting some engraving or etching on guns, even as skillfully executed as per your examples, does not make it a thing of great beauty.
I can’t think of a more fitting example of of the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
To each his own.
I think you’re confusing beauty and art. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and I deliberately did not use some famous examples of the engraver’s art (some much more ornate, some much more subdued) precisely because they just don’t appeal to me. But custom (i.e. handmade) firearms, or knives, or saddles, or furniture, or any other tools, do qualify as functional art. You may hate firearms for what they are or represent, but ask yourself if some of the engraving appeared on an ornamental silver box, would you like it then?
JP
In the spirit of beauty being in the eye of beholder here is a link to the
Heidelberg project in Southwest Detroit. Yes, I have been there.http://youtu.be/E6w6WGokjTU
Vos parents ont vraiment réussi à vous intéresser à beaucoup de choses, ce qui rend votre blog très instructif et ludique. Vous avez une culture très diverse et à côté de vous, je ne peux que me sentir inculte. Mes parents nous emmenaient très souvent mon frère et moi dans les musées et autres et nous faisaient voyager, mais il me faudrait encore au moins 3 vies pour arriver à votre niveau !!!!
Les armes qui sont photographiées sur votre blog sont d’une très grande finesse et d’une grande élégance. Je ne sais pas si ces armes ont été fabriquées pour être utilisées ou si ce sont des armes qui ont été fabriquées uniquement pour être exposées, mais il faut reconnaître qu’elles sont superbes et méritent leur place dans un musée !!!
Anita
Les armes ont été faites pour être utilisées et admirées pour leur beauté.
JP those were beautiful pictures. May I ask what is an ARIS? As I don’t know much about guns only from Air Cadets and they were WWII surplus. I did get an 80 on my target way back then! Oh I also shot a pellet gun in a neighbours garage when y grandfather tried to teach me lol
Tena French Halifax, NS Canada
An AR15 is the civilian, semi-automatic version of the fully automatic M16 manufactured for use by the American military. The AR15 is weapon demonized by the press and anti-gun groups as an “assault-weapon.” Curiously enough, when the government ordered 7000 of them for the Dept. of Homeland Security, they described them as “personal defense weapons.” In their hands, it’s for defense; in ours it’s for offense. Go figure.
JP
Thanks JP for explaining that!
Tena French Halifax NS Canada
Ah yes, that age old philosophical debate- must art be beautiful to be considered true art? It’s a topic that has been addressed as far back as Plato, Aristotle and Tolstoy.
Since I believe that the definition of art is “a unique creation, skillfully rendered, that is born from the artist’s imagination” (my definition), then I do agree that art is not always beautiful, nor must it be so. And functional art, as you have labelled your examples of guns, aren’t necessarily attractive to everyone, but after some reflection, I can appreciate them as examples of art.
That’s why I keep reading your blog, I like intelligent writing. Thanks for rarely letting me down.
Ha! I think I may have sparked a discussion! But hey, that’s what these blogs is for, right? I AM going to have to take a needle to mah head, though, as it is swellin’ up sumthin’ awful! Let some of that hot air out! But thanks for the compliments! Yet I must add some corrections there–I AM fool to plenty of folks, but there IS a time limit to that….. And “impeccable”? WAY too big a word for moi!(and I ain’t gittin’ too uppity assuming this, because, well, that IS my quote above!) I know a few things about a very few, narrow subjects, is all. Which is kinda what I was unsuccessfully alluding to in my comment(I thought)–that I had no proper appreciation for such(guns as works of art), likely because of a LACK of intellect and knowledge in that department! I ain’t sayin’ they AIN’T, I’m just sayin’ I am unable to properly recognize that. Same with a lot of civilized stuff–I also have zero aesthetic appreciation of autos, for instance. Now, I can gloat and drool over my recently purchased “authentic” razor sharp, formidable-as-heck Zulu assegai(spear)–that 18 inch blade shining in the sun, that straight 6 foot ash staff–a thing of beauty and utility! I just ain’t(and ain’t likely to ever) learn to see guns in the same way. But I still like having a coupla firesticks around if others are shooting them at me! I’m all for SOMEBODY having such aesthetic appreciation for such, since I am unable…..L.B.
I assume that you are being sarcastic.
I did think the engraving on the guns was beautiful. I really like the Celtic Knot. I did notice that one of links included leather work. We live where there are quite a few art and crafts shows in the summer. It is not unusual to see a least one person selling hand tooled leather goods. This could include belts, wallets and purses and other goods made with leather. A lot of leather goods or other goods are massed produced now. These are hand tooled. My husband did some this at one time not to sell, but he hasn’t done any lately. My sister-in law started making saddles at one time, but I don’t know if she does that now. All of these things are works of art because you can see the detail and the original touches used by the artist.
http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/?page_id=108
I gave this link because you mentioned antique cars. Those would be called classic cars. Every year in southeast Michigan on Aug. 17 we have something called the Woodward Dream Cruise. This is kind of hard to explain unless you have seen it. People with classic cars ranging any where from really old thirties cars up to cars from the sixties will take their cars most of which have been rebuilt and drive up and down Woodward. You could see hot rods or even a Model T. People will get their lawn chair and watch all this. I know it sounds crazy. There are also areas that have music from the fifties or sixties. I sent the link with the pictures of the cars.
I found some examples of the leather work.
http://www.terkencustomleather.com/Pages/Gallery.aspx
There is nothing purtier than a Mannlicher-style full-stocked bolt action rifle. I like ‘em plain and I like ‘em fancy. As far as “black rifle” aesthetics go, an HK 416 is more pleasing to my eye than the AR in that stripped-down tool sense to which you refer.
But nothing will ever displace a wedding of blued steel and walnut.
Jim Cornelius
http://www.frontierpartisans.com
Not quite ready to let this go–I feel I’m not quite expressing myself properly, so I’ll try again. It’s tricky(a good test for good, communicative writing!) conversing on the internet, rather than face-to-face, where we primates naturally interpret each other better with facial expressions, grunts, body posture, smells, etc.!… Though perhaps “beauty” and “art” aren’t exactly necessarily the same thing(an interesting distinction to ponder, that I had not considered before….), still, what individuals consider “art” seems to be very much an individualistic thing also–usually based on one’s personal interests. I can concede these guns are most definetely works of art, showing great skill and artistic ability, but, well, they just don’t MOVE me like they obviously do others. I have no desire to own one(gawd, they must be exorbitantly expensive!); and I’m never going to drool over one like a true gun afficiondo will. I DO drool over other things that I’m sure gun afficiondos would be unmoved by(like my plastic animal toy collection!). But I have nothing AGAINST others’ love/opinions on this issue. Not at all. Guns are just purely a functional tool to me. As are autos(as I mentioned). I drive an old beat-up mini toyota pick-up–I could care less how scratched up it gets! I’ve never “wasted” a minute washing it, or anguishing over it’s many dents and dings. Purely functional–and I’m FORCED by my culture and time to have an auto in the first place–not MY choice. I’d rather have a good mule or horse–now THAT I would drool over! And constantly be “messing” with! Artistic appreciation can vary enormously regarding THE SAME phenomenon–an example–personally, my LOVE for classical music is like this. I LOVE most orchestral music, but I ABHOR most anything with much PIANO in it–I just mostly(some exceptions) HATE piano music, which I find discordant, clanging, and grating on my ears. Strange, but there you have it. I also, try as I might HATE OPERA! I just don’t get it–I’d rather(truly!) listen to a pack of yipping coyotes! Yet I will most definetely concede that great skill and ability(artistic and physical) goes into both piano playing, and opera. And I come closer to appreciating fancy guns than either of those! I’m just uninterested in fancy guns; I actively dislike opera and pianers!…and to “Anonymous; March 22 at 5:00 P. M.” actually, I WASN’T being sarcastic–about any of that commentary! I felt compelled to balance out those superlatives J. P. used describing me(even if done so somewhat “tongue-in-cheek”! Unless of course J. P. was being sarcastic! Ha!), and YES, I DO have a Zulu-styled Assegai that I carry with me in the woods almost daily–I feel absolutely naked without it, I have become so accustomed to doing so! And I DO drool over this most simple, primitive weapon/tool! Because it is what I am interested in and use, that I can appreciate it, in a way that more “advanced” gun-toters probably just wouldn’t get! So I HAVE artistic aesthetic appreciation ability, it’s just, well, more PRIMITIVE in nature!….L.B.
http://nation.foxnews.com/maya-angelou/2013/04/03/poet-maya-angelou-blasts-gun-home-intruder?cmpid=NL_foxnation
Just because the taught of May Angelou blasting someone with a shotgun is funny.