Engraved pistols are not just the domain of antiques; they are being made right now, on the most modern platforms. This is the “Arabesque”, a project between Walther and Bottega Incisioni Giovanelli. The base gun is a Walther Q5 Match, and engraver Dario Cortini put nearly 140 hours of work into a beautiful hand-made engraving job, complete with tasteful gold accents.
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Walther P99 from which PPQ and Q5 derived, was the first striker pistol having double and single action trigger mechanism and its single action lay out with double sear, was very close to match type pistols rather than service samples. All P99 derived pistols were not successfull at service use and it appears Walther firm decided to get advantage of precise single action lockwork in match pistols in an ornamented way. lMHO…
Although I am unable to afford such an art work, Just how much would a gun like this be worth? (IN a general range.)
Allan, own a bunch of engraved guns and they can go from a couple thousand to tens of thousands (if it associated with someone). My guess, and it is nothing more than a swag on this (scientific wild ass guess) would be as follows:
Take base price of the gun and add 50%-100% to the price based on the level of engraving and who did it.
Famous engravers and engravers who have left the business typically demand a higher premium. Somebody like Angelo Bee would be a great engraver who is no longer producing.
Hope it helps.
This particular handgun costs $30,000. See: https://waltherarms.com/meister-manufaktur/arabesque/ Seeing as how the base price of this gun is about $1500, the cost of an old-world master engraver to do this level of work is about 2000% the cost of the gun.
This proves, at the very least, that Walther is capable of producing a Q5 Match SF without all those ridiculous holes drilled out all over the slide. It is an incredibly attractive gun without them and the very *minute* they make this gun available in that configuration, with or without engraving, I will open my wallet.
Well then…
He tried…
I’d rather be silent…
Judge Dredd meets Louis IV….ugh.
You mean Judge Dredd meets Louis XIV, right?
Whoops. Yes.
The more I look at it, the more I like it. That’s a very nice barbecue gun!
مأدبة يقدم فيها شواء gun.
A pistol that looks like a sow’s ear still looks like a sow’s ear no matter how much engraving you put on it.
Exactly 🙂
There are some amazing engravers working, and more busy are busy training, sometimes even in later life.
Westley Richards wrote on their blog about a retired school teacher who had contacted them for coaching and learning exercises, which he persevered with, and he now does work for Westley Richards.
I’m not sure what the market is for engraved production pistols
In the past, such things (along with very good looking girls) appear to have been presentation pieces for generals, politicians and high level bureautwats with influence on the awarding of large contracts
A production pistol (short of something like a pristine luger) just doesn’t have the appeal with or without the engraving. I’d even question engraving a high end production shotgun like a Perazzi…
To someone with British prejudices, “tasteful gold” is at least the same level of oxymoron as “bright darkness” or “warm cold”.
That’s not to decry people who like that sort of thing (Indian princes, gulf emirs and psychopathic French monarchs) spending their money on it.
It’s said in some places that it is more difficult to produce a really high end gun without engraving,
As there’s no way to camouflage any flaws or blemishes. That is probably the explanation for some of the crappy looking machine or (evenue crappier) hand embelishments on mass production guns.
“It’s said in some places that it is more difficult to produce a really high end gun without engraving”(C)
And there is. This is a common practice.
In general, pretty sloppy work.
Sharp corners, an ugly inset of a tree into metal, “engraving” is simply packed on top of unfinished surfaces…
And in general, a combination of chopped “machine” corners with a smooth pattern …
This is not just a discord and a bad manners, but some kind of total absence, not even of taste, but of the very idea of it.
There is a good expression for this case “looks like a cavalry saddle on a cow.”
Perhaps contoured duplicates of generatrix lines applied by a laser would have looked much more appropriate. Supplemented by some unpretentious “sports” plots.
And certainly no wood.
Although, given the “outstanding virtues” of the soil, it will do.
There is a buyer for any product. LOL
Theoretically, that is dependant upon price.
Lacklustre engravers and one armed ditch diggers can both find paid employment, but, in any realistic world neither is able to find both a job and a good pay packet.
But, looking at the production engineered pieces of gun sh1te that emanate from places with low cost labour…
That then have a retail asking price of $€£ thousands (very soon to become Zimbabwe style hundreds of trillions).
Perhaps the “tasteful” engraving and golden plated, die cast, zinc trigger, actually appeal to some suckers?
It’s like a swamp donkey (singularly unattractive individual) pushing a pram.
They must have appealed to someone (of exceptionally poor taste, or high alcohol intake, at some time.